Neverwhere
by Ling-Hao
Summary: AU. When Hinata died, she didn't go to heaven: instead, she is caught in a place that never existed to her, leaving her struggling to find companionship - especially that of those she lost. NaruHina, NaruSaku, some NejiHina, maybe SasuHina.
1. Far and Close

**THIS IS A GAME.** _In other words, this is an AU fic and I am not going to tell you who is Naruto, who is Sasuke, etc. It is up to you to guess until it is revealed. _

This is partially because there are two timelines to follow, but it shouldn't be too hard. If you don't like to think while reading a story, you may or may not have a harder time with this.

_Italics_ are flashbacks/dreams/etc.

**Chapter 1 – Far and Close**

"Open your eyes."

Hinata's eyes flickered to life and she groaned. Everywhere ached. A nauseous spasm racked her body, shocking her into total consciousness. She rocketed to her feet, eyes wild – someone's finger pointed her to the bathroom – and she hurled herself into it, not even bothering to flick the light switch as she knelt over the toilet bowl. Bile hit the roof of her mouth and she choked it out, coughing.

Click went the switch, on went the lights.

Hinata, stomach emptied and feeling weak, began to feel an acute throbbing pain that hammered her skull. She leaned back, and was relieved to discover a wall there and not the tile.

A boy stood in the doorway – tall, lanky, pale and dark. Slanted black eyes, angular face.

"S-Sasuke-san?" she mumbled, too drained to be scared. He gave her a look. She averted her eyes to the floor. Her head was pounding.

"Okay, quick quiz: What is your name? How old are you?" he interrogated, leaning on the doorframe.

"H-Hyuuga H-Hinata. Twenty-eight years old. I th-think," she stammered. He crouched suddenly, expression unreadable.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" was the next question demanded of her.

"Three?" Hinata answered hesitantly.

"I think something's wrong with you," he finally said.

She was shaking now. Things filtered in through the gray haze… things she didn't want to remember.

_Dappled light hushing through leaves overhead and the drip drip dripping of drizzle. Somebody sounds far away, but close._

Hinata slid backward now, away from him. The panic began to set in. What…?

"I'm not Sasuke," he said. "Whoever the hell that is."

"Name…?" Hinata squeaked weakly.

"Nikkou Kanaye."

"Wh-where am I, Nikkou-san? What village is th-this?"

"If you're pulling some kinda prank, I'm gonna fucking kill you," he growled, leaving Hinata speechless. So he continued. "I'm getting mom. She's the nurse, she'll know what the hell to do with you."

He sauntered off, leaving Hinata alone with herself. Muffled shouting soon accosted her hypersensitive ears and she covered them. She gagged as her stomach tried to force more liquid up her burned esophagus, but nothing came. She was empty.

A ruffled-looking Kanaye returned soon enough, tailed by a beautiful woman in her mid thirties. The scowl on the woman's face quickly melted into an air of concern as she caught sight of Hinata. Her eyes tallied the hurts and then she knelt next to Hinata and put a comforting hand on her trembling shoulder.

"Looks like you've had a nasty concussion to your left temple. Good job it wasn't your right. Bruises all over, but you should be fine in a week or two. Now let's take care of that gash on your pretty face," she clucked in a motherly fashion. She immediately began to bustle around the bathroom. Kanaye backed up, trying not to touch her as she unpacked an arsenal of first-aid.

The sting of some healing salve distracted Hinata, but she sat still and did not whimper. A good ninja shows no pain.

After the gentle hands had been retracted and a sizable wad of gauze pasted to Hinata's skin, Kanaye's mother helped her to her feet.

This was to no avail, as Hinata's legs fell from under her as she gasped at what she saw in the mirror.

A young, dainty girl with olive skin and eyes of see-through blue; choppy mahogany hair framing a delicately curved chin – and not more than sixteen years old.

Kanaye's stone eyes burned holes in her head.

-

_Somebody sounds far away, but close. I can feel them holding me._

Hinata's rigid body shot straight up and the forgot to breathe as the cold sweat set in. Panicking, she groped for a body beside hers, one that wasn't there.

Then she remembered where she was.

In the patterned shadows, faint outlines of foreign furniture appeared. She silently thanked Nikkou-san's mother for allowing her to stay the night at least. Hinata stood easily, the blanket falling free of borrowed pajamas. The living room was frigid and forsaken; the floor carpeted and comforting; but what she was most curious about was the way sharp sounds filtered in through the walls of the apartment. The window would answer her questions. She pulled back the drapes and heaved open the glass barrier, exposing the gray light of pre-dawn.

It was a good thing she didn't fear heights. No building in Konohagakure would have risen higher that she right now, and the buildings around her were taller still. Strange boxes on wheels roared and honked as the inched past on the street below. Florid, gaudy signs hung tall as trees on concrete walls, advertising the world over. Hunched people ghosted down sidewalks and somewhere a dog barked.

Hinata slid to the ground and curled up.

_There's no place like home._

_Creak-squeak. Creak-squeak._

_Up went the black-haired child and down she came. Hinata, elegant in her simple navy kimono, gave another push to Nariko's back so the little girl would fly higher on her swing set. Wind whispered in the trees aesthetically arranged around the Hyuuga estate. Nariko laughed, blank white eyes aglow._

_RIIIIIING. RIIIIING._

_Hinata turned towards the open door, leaving Nariko to come back to earth. Carefully, with small steps, she made her way up the wooden veranda and through the open paper door to pick up the phone. Nariko hopped off the swing and followed her in to tug at Hinata's skirts and listen._

"_Hello? . . . . . .Oh, Naruto-kun. How is the mother-to-be?. . . . . . .I am sure Sakura-chan is handling it. . . . . .Neji and I are fine. Nariko is doing well in school."_

_Hinata paused, her attention focused on the voice at the other end – Nariko tugged harder on the kimono, wanting attention. Hinata's free hand absentmindedly brushed the black hair back from Nariko's eyes. Then Hinata's hands started shaking and she nervously tangled her fingers in the phone cord._

"_I-I-I. . .I'll be right over, N-Naruto-kun."_


	2. Blood and Waste

AN: ::bursts out laughing:: Oh, I knew _someone_ would get pissed off because of that. Usually it takes a couple of chapters for people to start flaming, though. Anyways, thank you to all reviewers, even you angry flamers. Individual responses take too long, I've discovered, so I won't do them in this fanfic unless the review is a valid question, a constructive criticism, or really, really interesting.

Remember, to elicit a reply, make it good.

**Thanks goes to-**

**Beta: **Kim and Madi

**Happy List:** Xoni Newcomer, insanely-normal, saturnova, Dragon's Shadow, and Smiter

**Angry List:** Monster Taco

_Italics_ flashback/dream/etc.

On with the show.

**Chapter 2 – Blood and Waste **

And that was how Kanaye found Hinata, curled tightly into a ball and framed by an incandescent square of light from the window. He thought she might be crying, or sulking, but she wasn't making any noise. Therefore, he could safely assume that she was dead. Kanaye kneeled over her body and put two fingers to her neck to check for a pulse.

"L-leave me alone," Hinata whispered.

"If you say so," Kanaye replied, standing up. He turned to go, paused, and came back to lock the window. Then he picked up a pocketknife carelessly abandoned on the counter. Then he did a quick once over of the kitchen to make sure all other sharp, pointy objects were out of sight.

Then he went away.

Now Hinata was alone. She unsteadily tottered to her feet, her face down and wet, and limped to the bathroom. Once she was safely inside, she locked the door, sucked in a deep breath, and stared into the mirror.

She was someone else, but who? And besides that...

"_Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted, her byakugan realizing in an instant what was about to happen. She reacted before she could think, shoving in front of his frozen body and connecting with the darkness threatening to engulf him. Tatters of black thread wound themselves around her. At the tip a needle loomed and it stabbed her, embedding itself between her ribs and closing in on her heart. Like a broken bird, she beautifully crumpled. Drops of red rained down on the brown and green earth._

_A panicked cry of "Hinata-chan!!!!!" made itself heard, and suddenly a face made of sunlight and fire appeared, wet with new tears. Naruto gently lifted her into his lap._

_Hinata wanted to laugh and cry and scream. Just a few yards away was the mauled mess that used to be Sasuke, and now she was going too. If she didn't do something fast, this strange jutsu was going to eat –_

_She coughed weakly, and muttered something. Naruto leaned in, listening, eyes sad._

"_Vial….in….bag," she managed, through the blood, sweat, and collapsed lung. Naruto ripped open the pouch as fast as humanly possible and carefully handed her the unmarked vial. She drank it quickly._

"_Hinata-chan," he whispered._

"_Don't…die," she said. _

_His face hardened into that resolved look she knew and loved. He wouldn't die._

_Oh god, she thought, my Nariko-chan, Neji-kun, I don't want to d-_

_Dappled light hushing through trees overhead and the drip drip drip of drizzle. Somebody sounds far away, but close. I can feel them holding me._

Hinata stepped away from the mirror, breathing erratically, and opened the door to the bathroom. She wandered into the forlorn kitchen, shaking and crying. Her hands found a dishtowel and she wetted it, pushing herself through the motions of washing the counter, if only for the farce of normality. Anything to make it stop.

But she couldn't help but wonder if fate had dealt her a bad hand.

_Sixteen-year-old_ _Hinata was eavesdropping. Not on purpose, mind you, but because she'd happened to pass the room her father was meeting the Elders in. And the white paper walls of their traditional home were not very thick._

"_-would solve the problem of a competent Hyuuga heir," her father was saying._

_She heard murmurs of assent, and then her father's voice spoke._

"_Come in, Hinata."_

_Shocked and nervous, Hinata in her black kimono kneeled, opened the door, and slid in as politely as she could while on her knees. She put her hands in her lap and twitched them, Her eyes were focused on the cherry wood floorboards in front of the small dais on which her father sat stiffly on his silk cushion._

_He gave her a thin smile._

"_A good ninja walks more quietly," he told her. "But no matter. This topic concerns you."_

"_Y-yes, Father," Hinata stammered in a whisper. She could feel the elders' eyes on her._

"_We have proposed that if you marry Neji, we will allow you to train as a medic nin."_

Well, the counters were done. She wasn't sure how to clean the living room's carpet, but there were still plenty of dusty dressers. She briefly pondered what Nikkou-san's mother was going to do about her, but threw herself back into the process of cleaning before she worried too much.

-------------------------------------------

By the time Kanaye returned home, hot city lights were drowning the stars out. The entry hall was quiet, but he could hear voices in the kitchen. And something smelled spicy and sweet. His mother…couldn't cook. Huh?

Trodding on squeaky linoleum, he found himself faced with an awesome sight: concussion girl in an apron, serving his mother red curry.

"Hey sweetie," his mom called, her mouth half full. "I think the amnesia your friend got from that concussion did her some good."

Hinata blushed, removing the apron knotted around her waist and backing away just enough.

"She even cleaned the apartment," Kanaye's mother continued, watching Kanaye's hunted expression. He had a mask of calm in place, but on the edges there were hints of irritation.

"I only w-wanted to thank you," Hinata muttered, eyes on the floor. Kanaye's mother smiled, even through the awkward silence.

"Well, kids, its been fun. Now it's time to go work the night shift," she grinned, uncrossing her long legs and grabbing her purse. "You can stay for now, Hinata-chan. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Kanaye."

She sauntered off, and the door closed with a resounding click. Kanaye stared at Hinata and said nothing. Hinata fidgeted and felt claustrophobic. Several seconds ticked away, and the quiet thickened. Surprisingly, Hinata broke it first.

"Uh…s-so your mother's a nurse, Nikkou-san?"

"Yeah," Kanaye replied, leaning back in his chair. His eyes were hooded, his face shadowed, and the dim bulb overhead leaked waxy yellow light on his black hair. Hinata shivered.

_Ivory skin complete with messy black hair and scratched forehead protector, he didn't see Hinata in the ranks as he stood to face the Godaime Hokage in her mission hall. The gold light from the lamps overhead reflected on him and betrayed his youthful features. Naruto was next to him, a boyish smile on his teenage face._

"_Okay, Sasuke," Tsunade sighed. "You can come home now."_

When she returned from her trance, Kanaye was still staring at her. Hinata blanched, and as she did so began to unconsciously remember nervous habits she'd dropped years ago.

"So tell me about yourself…Sana."

"It's Hinata," Hinata said weakly.

"Right. Then I must be 'Sasuke.' Is he your boyfriend?" Kanaye smirked, eyes dark and narrow.

"No!" Hinata shot out instantaneously. Breathless, she was about to say something when-

"Oh, he's your ex. I see how it is," Kanaye replied, uncoiling like a python finished strangling its prey.

"No! I'm _married_!"

"You didn't invite me to your wedding?! That's rough."

Hinata was in shock, her mouth open. He wasn't being vicious, really…was he being…._overdramatic_?

"I mean, I would've made a great bridesmaid, don't you think? I'd look great in a dress," Kanaye continued. "So you were having an affair with 'Sasuke,' then?"

"No!"

"Oh, unrequited love," Kanaye nodded knowingly.

"No! He was an acquaintance!" she huffed, miffed at how he kept making assumptions.

"Waitaminute," Kanaye told her, making for a doorway. She sat down in a kitchen chair and waited for him. He returned minutes later with two water glasses, filled to the brim with a yellowish clear liquid.

"Is that alcohol?" Hinata asked warily, eyeing the suspicious fluid.

"No," Kanaye said. "This is single malt scotch whiskey."

"You're underage! What are you doing?!"

Kanaye eased back into his chair across from Hinata. He put the glasses on the table and rested his arms there.

"I know it's not a Friday night, but we're going to play a drinking game. We'll judge how fucked up you are by how wasted I am. Every time you say something weird, I'll take a sip….hmmm…. and how about you take a sip if I say something wrong? Or maybe you should just sip every time I do…"

"I don't want this stuff!" Hinata exclaimed.

Kanaye took a sip.

"Stop that!"

Kanaye took another sip.

He sighed, and then asked her, "You want some apple juice instead? I'll get some for you."

Without waiting for an answer, he got up, opened the fridge, removed a container, emptied some into a new glass, and placed it on the table. Then he slouched back into his seat.

"Okay," Kanaye started. "First question. So what do you do for a living, Haruko?"

"Hinata," Hinata corrected, still vaguely unhappy. "I am a medical ninja from Konohagakure."

A blank look crossed Kanaye's face. Then he drained a quarter of the glass, left, and came back with the whole bottle of scotch.

"I'm gonna need this," he grumbled. Seeing Hinata's protest before she could voice it, he added, "And don't preach to me, alright?"

Hinata stayed quiet, but tried her best to glare at him in a disapproving way. She didn't think it was working, though, because when he looked up he had to muffle his laughter with another sip of scotch.

"Now you ask one," he prodded her.

"Um…okay…what do you do for a living?"

Kanaye took another sip of scotch before he answered.

" 'm a student. Hmmm…so who's your family?" he mumbled.

"….Well, there's me…. Neji, my husband,….my daughter, Nariko…..my father….and many extended relatives. Uh, and you?"

Kanaye drank some more whiskey. His glass was half empty already. Noting this, Hinata began to worry. Maybe if she could just try harder, he wouldn't drink so much.

"Just me an' my mom," he answered, his words slightly slurred. Not enough to seriously dent his mental capacity, but enough that Hinata was beginning to see the effects on him. "Oh, and call me Kanaye. All this 'Nikkou-san' bullshit is annoying. It sounds like you're talking to my mom when you say it."

Hinata blushed an angry red, but said nothing. She turned away; Kanaye took a big gulp.

"Bet you'd like to know what happened though," was Kanaye's next loose phrase. This caused Hinata to glance sharply upward, urging him to do so. Steadily, he went on. "Well, I don't have a damn clue. You just showed up on my doorstep, bleeding. It interrupted my game of Samurai Showdown IV and since it was a part where I couldn't save, I lost to Amidamaru 'cause of you. Anyways, so I dragged you in by the arms 'cause I was too tired to pick you up. Didn' put you in a bed 'cause you'd vomit all over the covers, and I just had 'em cleaned from last time. Then you bled on my carpet, but mom wasn' home ye' to clean it up. So I lef' you there and wen' to sleep. It was two in the mornin', goddammit. People 'r asleep at two in the mornin'."

His glass was now empty. He slid the second glass of scotch, originally intended for Hinata, towards him.

"Yer not drinkin' yer apple juice," was his next comment. "Does it tase bad? Wan scoch with it?"

"No," was Hinata's answer, but by that time the scotch and the apple juice had already been mixed. Kanaye lifted it to his lips and promptly sprayed it everywhere.

"Tase like shit," he muttered dolefully, returning the glass to the table. "Remind….me not to do it again."

"Who am I supposed to be?" Hinata asked quietly, intent on stopping this nonsense. Half closed black eyes glared up at her.

"Toya Sorano. From the orph'nage," Kanaye grumbled. "At least yew fergot th' time when I lit your hair on fire wif a ciag…cigara…cigaret-not that I did anything like that."

He got up, swaying gently, and half-realized how wasted he was.

"Man," he said, "You're pretty fucked up this time, aren'tcha?"

Hinata dragged him across the floor to his bed by his arms because she was too tired to lift him.


	3. Echo and Bloom

AN: I'm pretty pissed off at right now, mostly because if you search for my pen name, it says I don't exist. Also, it says this story doesn't exist if you look through the Naruto section. I think the second problem will be fixed with this update, but still… argh.

This chapter contains some fluff. Be satisfied.

**Beta:** Kim and Madi

**Happy List: **Quile and Princess Krystal01

**Chapter 3 – Echo and Bloom**

Kanaye blamed it on Hinata when he had to rush to the bathroom to puke in the toilet that morning. After all, she was the one with the mental issues.

The real question was why Sorano had suddenly decided to become "Hinata." Kanaye woozily wandered around the apartment, miserably anticipating the moment when the Advil would kick in. Where was "Hinata," anyway? And where was his mom?

-

Midori's was not a well-known restaurant, but it was cheap, and the food was okay.

Nikkou Hanako, illustrious mother of Kanaye and hardworking nurse, leaned back in the squeaky plastic seat and thoughtfully studied the chestnut-haired girl across from her. Hinata was certainly not Sorano – not this girl who dusted the dressers, cooked up curry, and flinched with the feeling of eyes on her.

'I wonder if Sorano has multiple personality disorder?' Hanako mused internally. 'I've never heard of a kind of amnesia that replaces one personality with another, though.'

"Hmmm," Hanako murmured, and smiled brightly at Hinata's attempts to melt into the floor.

"U-um," Hinata stuttered.

"Did Kanaye do anything? To you?" Hanako asked, raising an eyebrow and brushing her long hair behind her shoulders.

"No," Hinata replied truthfully.

"Oh good," was Hanako's cheery response. "So you're not friends with benefits."

At this, Hinata choked and glanced up into Hanako's half-closed eyes. Hanako laughed like a mouse, her face all scrunched up. If she had whiskers, they would be twitching.

"You're so cute," Hanako giggled.

Hinata wanted to say something, but she couldn't think. She hadn't been called cute since she was five years old, and even then only by her mother. As she stared at Hanako a gradual change overcame the older woman, and the easy grin dropped into a straight line.

"I'll be honest, Hinata-chan. I didn't drag you in here just to chat with an old lady. I have a business proposition."

-

Somewhere else, someone dreamed.

"_Hinata likes me," he said, feet swinging precariously over the edge of the cliff, right over the stone head of the 4th Hokage. "She told me today. Then she ran away before I could say anything."_

_Sakura briefly pondered where Hinata had gotten the courage. Maybe the buildup of all those unrequited years finally broke the dam._

"_She's afraid of rejection," Sakura replied unthinkingly. She haphazardly lay back and looked at the sky._

"_Why?" Naruto asked. "I like Hinata."_

_Ever the innocent. Still, Sakura couldn't help but feel a little irritated. Sasuke hadn't been so open._

_Rather, maybe she just _wished_ Sasuke hadn't been so open._

_Sakura remembered the day he'd asked her. It was cloudy, without rain, and they were returning from a tough two-member mission. On that day, she had been limping, and Inner Sakura had dearly hoped that Sasuke, despite his appearance of health, was in just as much agony as she. Misery and fraternity forever._

_He had stopped walking, and turned around to face her. He glanced back and forth, shifting weight imperceptibly from foot to foot. _

"_Sakura."_

_She had stared at him, her comrade and traitor, her love and regret. His eyes were like the dark glass of volcanoes._

"_Do…do you remember the pledge I made all those years ago?" he asked haltingly, as if trying to breach a difficult subject._

"_Yes. 'To kill a certain man,'" Sakura deadpanned. Her eyes had been half closed, she was tired of fighting off the weariness. She was almost asleep._

"_I…made a second pledge as well," he added, rousing Sakura out of her numb state. "I pledged…to restore my clan. I would have you…help me."_

_Somehow, this didn't live up to the fossilized fragments of kisses she had tucked away in her heart. And it hurt for it to be this way. She sniffled roughly and pawed at swollen red eyes, wondering why her face was so wet. It was her leg wound, she told herself, it ached horribly._

_She had asked him to let her think on it, and they had left it at that._

"_So should I…ask Hinata out? Like on a date?" Naruto asked her, shaking Sakura out of her reverie. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do?"_

"_It has to be what you _want_ to do," Sakura softly explained. "You don't have to."_

_His eyes were the sky and the wind made the ends of his headband and hair like black and yellow feathers. She almost smiled, because he was a bird: he flew free of many of the brambles of society on the wings of a dream, all because society wanted no part of him. And she, with her green, secret earth eyes, envied him just a little for it._

"_Would I have to kiss her?" Naruto queried cautiously. "I don't think I'd be any good; I haven't practiced. The only one I ever kissed was Sasuke, and he doesn't count."_

"_If she lets you," Sakura shrugged, sitting up and searching the panorama spread out before them for the real question. It was springtime. _

"_What's with you?" Naruto grumbled, shifting side to side with studied tension. "All quiet and stuff. You got gas or something?"_

_Sakura laughed and laughed, because he was so ridiculous, and she felt giddy with a budding feeling, and she said – _

"_You're such a! You're an idiot – you're so stupid, Naruto – I could just – " _

_He tasted warm when she kissed him._

_Cherry blossoms bloom in the spring._

_- _

Hinata slumped in her seat, transfixed on what Nikkou-san was saying.

"I'll let you live with us, and I'll even support your education," Nikkou Hanako firmly proposed. "The catch is that you cook and clean. And, if you suddenly turn back into Sorano, I reserve the right to kick you out."

Well, it wasn't as if there were any other options. When Hanako stuck out her hand, Hinata took it.

"Now for my part of the bargain," Hanako said. "We're going to the orphanage to pick up your transcript and enroll you in Kanaye's school, alright?"

"Thank you," was Hinata's timid response.

-

A dream continued, the echo of a past.

"_And then! And then!" Naruto exclaimed, loudly enough for people in the street to turn and glare at the misfit duo. He was tall and lithe and deft with his hands as he swept them through a demonstration of his latest victory with wildly punctuating fingertips. Sakura reached only to his shoulder, berating him in an equally loud, if not equally obnoxious, tone of voice as he almost bumped into wall after wall of people._

_He still walked backwards right into somebody. But today that wasn't what pissed off Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura belatedly realized. Despite Naruto's inherent clumsiness around other people and its tendency to get him in trouble, Sakura sensed that Sasuke was angry because she and Naruto were holding hands. He said nothing, but a shadow of madness darkened his black eyes and he stood like an anchor against the sea of people. This was what made Naruto understand, coupled with his longtime association with the Uchiha heir._

_Sasuke disappeared without even a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto and Sakura in stunned silence. They grew quiet amid the bustle of the crowd, stranded in a precarious new situation. It felt a bit like looking over the cliff into the abyss – to Sakura, anyway._

_Naruto walked Sakura home. They treaded alone together, through the uncomfortable quiet. He left her on her doorstep and stooped to kiss her goodbye. She stopped him with a finger._

"_Don't fight him," she warned._

"_Okay," Naruto agreed._

_A few of her fears eased, Sakura drew him down to her parted lips._

_The next day, Naruto dropped by, bruises and band-aids decorating him, his arm carefully arranged in a sling, his eye swollen, and his lip split, complete with an easy grin ready for her._

"_We worked things out," he explained._

"_He broke your arm!" was Sakura's heated reply._

"_That's nothing," Naruto said. "I broke his nose."_


	4. Pulling Punches

AN: Wow, you guys. I'm pleased to say that when I found your reviews, I was incredibly happy. Now, before I answer a few questions/comments, let me explain some things. I have this story planned out in its entirety, and also: all your questions on previous chapters will be answered by me, all questions on the future will be answered by future chapters.

The school has been organized in more American terms, because it's easier for me.

**Thanks goes to – **

**Beta:** Kim and Madi

Cyberwing: Think about this. If Naruto is extra-naïve, and someone told him they liked him, he would probably say he liked them too. This is because he tries to be an adult (hence his sexy no jutsu) but ends up more childish instead, because he doesn't really understand (hence his personality). Now think about Naruto trying to make conversation while Sakura is acting 'weird.' Notice how he says "_Would I have to_ kiss her?" instead of "_Can I_ kiss her?" You don't have to agree, but think about it.

bLackBodian: In medieval times, it was common for cousins to marry cousins. Although I don't really like Hinata and Neji as a couple, I can see their old-fashioned family proposing a marriage between the two – and not for love. All your questions will be answered. Eventually.

saturnova: To your second question, let me say that both events were happening simultaneously.

Xoni Newcomer: You're close. Besides, I still haven't revealed exactly what is happening yet, just bits and pieces.

**I love you guys so much: **Princess Krystal01, elsiey, Cyberwing, bLackBodian, Ah-choo, saturnova, Xoni Newcomer, OspreyAnimeG and Tig Jones

Sorry for the ultra-long A/N. I'll stop now.

**Chapter 4 – Pulling Punches**

"Hit me," he said.

It had been a long and tiresome weekend. The orphanage had been one lonely gray building filled with whispers upon her arrival, and they didn't stop even after she left. It was extremely rare for someone to take a teen into custody – babies were ever the popular item. Once finished there, Hinata and Hanako took the transcripts to the high school. This school in particular was a bastion of steel and concrete, unfriendly but utterly secure, and the minimal staff occupying its recesses paid them no mind. Hinata took an entrance exam and was done. And now Kanaye was walking her to her first day of school, mostly out of his own initiative but also out of a quiet warning from his mother to "make nice with Hinata-chan."

"What?" Hinata asked blearily.

"Hit me," he repeated amiably, looking down at her mop of reddish-brown hair.

"I can't."

"You've been acting like this for a few days now," he grumbled. "Sorano wouldn't hold a prank that long…I think."

"Do you believe me?" she inquired softly, scuffing a black mary-jane shoe along the pavement. She flinched as another car careened by, one whizzing hunk of metal just barely pasted together into an un-aerodynamic blob.

"No, don't tell me," he grimaced, rolling his eyes. "You've been doing that all morning. You don't have cars in Ninja-land?"

"We never needed them," was Hinata's reply.

"Yeah, okay," was all he said. "I don't believe you. So hit me."

The cheeky half-smile her gave her looked not a little strange on his new moon face.

"No," Hinata told him. "I won't hit you."

"If you're a ninja, you can fight like one," he said matter-of-factly.

That ended the conversation. The morning sun beat down on them through the forest of buildings as they approached the school. Then he moved in front of her, stopping her, and left no room for argument.

"Punch me. _Now._"

With the perfect form of long practice, Hinata caved in and lightly demonstrated the Konoha-style straight right punch on his left shoulder. Kanaye sighed. He put his hands in his pockets and seemed to retreat inward, looking but not seeing as the festering cacophony of the city echoed off the concrete all around them. Hinata's eyes were on the forlorn food wrappers and black gum glued to the sidewalk, on the shiny velvet of her new uniform shoes contrasting with the stark white of her pressed socks.

"You're not real," Kanaye said, and Hinata's blood ran cold. "Your home isn't, either. Your family is fake. Nothing you talk about exists anywhere on this Earth. You're just a fragment of Sorano's imagination that came to the surface because she's hurt. You aren't a ninja. You're worth nothing-"

He was on the ground, bleeding from his mouth with the wind knocked out of him, before he'd realized what happened. Hinata was leaning over him, tears on her cheeks, trembling with…something.

"Fuck," he coughed, tasting iron and spitting saliva and blood on the ground. "I got you pretty mad, didn't I? Nobody likes being told they're a lie. I didn't even see you move."

"You did that on purpose," she cried. They sat like that for a minute, Hinata breathing and Kanaye bleeding. Finally, Hinata grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. He leaned on her until his scattered breath fell back into a pattern. Hinata herself was shaken at how ingrained the protective reflex was – but she was more upset with how easily he'd breached her defenses. It shook her to the bone.

"What _was_ that? You used the palm of your hand."

Blood was oozing down Kanaye's chin, and the possibility that she'd dislocated, sprained, or otherwise injured his jaw when she'd hit it was high – and Hinata knew his stomach would have a bruise where she'd slammed him right after, right below the ribs. The upward thrust hadn't just pushed the air from his lungs; it had thrown him back quite a few feet.

"Gentle Fist," she murmured. "Now let me see your jaw-"

"You call an ass-kicking move like that 'Gentle Fist'? You may as well can it 'Gentle Slap,' 'cause you're a girl!"

There was obviously nothing wrong with Kanaye's jaw.

"I didn't name it-"

"I mean, why not something cool, like 'Fist of the Divine' – or – or – hell, even something like 'Purple Moon Heart Wand Shimmer Attack' would be better than 'Gentle Slap'!"

"Gentle _Fist_-"

"So, have you got any other L33T N1NJ4 5K1LL5?"

Hinata gave up. Kanaye appeared to have selective hearing and selective memory, and this let him believe what he wanted to believe and safely ignore all else.

"Well, my clan has the hereditary skill of Byakugan," Hinata ventured cautiously. Kanaye stared at her, nonplussed.

"So?" he grumbled.

"Well, if my eyes were white, I could show you…it's, well, a power with the eyes…"

"You can shoot laser beams from your eyes?" Kanaye wondered, sullen mood evaporating.

"No-"

"That's so cool."

"Actually, the Byakugan allows a user to see everything."

"I like the laser beams better," was Kanaye's final remark on the topic before he moseyed off, Hinata in tow. Hinata had no idea what 'laser beams' even meant.

The school was the same fort of stone, but now students herded themselves into the gates in droves. Brick walls encompassed the school, and everything was a shade of gray, except the sky, whose freedom and brilliance contrasted the drab confinements of the edifice. Somehow, Hinata was reminded of the ancestral Hyuuga home.

Kanaye sashayed around the crowds, Hinata barely keeping pace. He did a drive-by identification of individuals as he went, giving Hinata a quick rundown of people he thought Sorano knew. Although Sorano had attended the orphanage's small school, she was apparently associated with some of the students here.

"That guy is your skater friend, she's the girl you…um…bully to do your homework, and that guy is…uh…your fuckbuddy? I think? You may not wanna talk to him."

The rest of his words escaped her. He swept the dazed Hinata into the double doors – everything seemed so different, now that life quickened in the school's veins – and snatched Hinata's schedule out of her frozen hands and glanced at it.

"Room 2-207," he read aloud. "History. That's up those stairs, to the left. Oh, and don't forget – you shouldn't go into the girls' bathroom on that floor. It's off limits."

"Why-uh-" Hinata stammered, but Kanaye was thirty feet down the hallway, moving his head and hands back and forth to the beat of his CD player. He danced around a group of seniors before disappearing from sight.

Hinata resisted the urge to burst into tears. Nothing is more fearful to mankind than the unknown, and now Kanaye had left her bathing in it like it was perfectly natural. Hinata dodged and ducked around the other students as she steadily made her way up the stairs.

-

_Hinata was at the open door, silently watching the morning rain make the garden shimmer, listening to it patter on the wooden shingles in the darkness above her head. Her sleeping kimono was white against the dark whorls of cherry wood, blending into translucent skin, making short navy hair all the more visible._

"_What did you get in return?" a voice asked from behind her, in the shadows. _

"_I can become a medic nin," Hinata told Neji, turning to face him._

"_They'd never have let you marry him anyway," Neji said, tone free of inflection. Hinata's face flushed just a little at that, and she bit her lip, facing her garden again._

"_I-I told Naruto-kun I liked him, right before the wedding, Neji nii-san," Hinata whispered. "It-It was enough."_

"_Don't call me that," was all he said. "Not anymore."_

_Hinata stood in the doorway, staring out at nothing, but also staring out into her future, and she could see nothing there, either._

_Neji stood beside her, listening to the rain, but also listening to Hinata cry like a broken-winged bird. He did not touch her, but stayed with her for a long time._

Hinata awakened slowly as the noise of rain blended into the tapping of chalk on a board. She carefully arranged herself so she was sitting up and tried to pay attention. There were no Hokages, no Ninja World Wars, and there was no Konoha. History had skipped what Hinata knew to be true and moved on into distant lands with too many countries and not enough forests. She hid her eyes with her hair and asked the teacher if she could be excused to the bathroom.

In fact, Hinata followed Kanaye's advice. If, for whatever reason, there was something horrible going on in the second story girls' bathroom, the least she could do was avoid it. Hinata went up one more flight of stairs to the third story.

At least the bathrooms were the same. Hinata locked the door to the stall before collapsing onto the toilet seat. She sat there, feeling a little claustrophobic, and thought about how the garden smelled in the morning, just after a sun shower. She thought about the way Nariko's cheek would dimple sweetly when she smiled. She thought about Neji's solemnity and strength; she thought about Naruto's passion and promise. There was a forest in her mind's eye; and in the forest was a town, wooden with plaster, paint, and sun. It was a palette of people and dreams.

Now voices reached her ears, growing louder and louder, and Hinata pulled at the toilet paper, hastily yanking it up to wipe her eyes. A whole herd of female voices cascaded in through the door as it squeaked on its hinges, and Hinata automatically snapped her feet up onto the toilet seat where they wouldn't be seen. Hinata sat still, limbs like ice, with lead for thoughts: paranoia became reflex after so many years.

Click. Click. _BANG! BANG!_

"There's someone in our bathroom," someone hissed, trying the door one more time with a resounding _bang._ Hinata felt the stares penetrate her, even through the flimsy walls of the stall.

-

Meanwhile, Kanaye was twiddling his thumbs downstairs in English class. His black headphones easily camouflaged with his dark hair so to happily ignore the teacher and maintain his zen. Suddenly, he remembered something.

'I told her the second story bathroom was off limits, didn't I?' he thought. 'Well, that was wrong, it's the third story bathroom. Oops. Oh well.'

-

The door was kicked open, and Hinata frog-marched out by two bossy brunettes to be kicked at the feet of a slim, slender beauty with wide set grass eyes, rosebud lips, and long, blond hair that fell to her waist in a shining cascade. Her pointed features glared condescendingly down at Hinata. The rest of her clique followed suit.

"The new kid from History," she smiled sardonically. "Guess you haven't heard. This bathroom is off limits."

"It's Hinata," Hinata muttered, remembering how she'd introduced herself to the class as Toya Sorano…and then asked them to call her Hinata. Still, no one ever got her name right.

The blond didn't hear her, though, because she was rubbing at her temples with small fingers, eyes shutting and eyebrows scrunching up as she did so. Even with her eyes closed she could see, and what she saw was this:

"_I'm pregnant!" Sakura announced joyfully, standing and patting her slightly rounded tummy and turning to look at all of the faces gathered around the table at the restaurant._

"_You couldn't hide it for much longer anyway," Naruto muttered from his seat at her elbow. Sakura punched him, but was careful not to damage any furniture as she did so. Naruto hit the floor with a thud – they both laughed as she helped him back up. He squeezed her arm in a comforting gesture, and she sneaked a glance at his sky eyes._

"_Now you can join me in the wonders of maternity…forehead girl," Ino burst out, cackling with glee and slapping her longtime friend and rival on the back. Shikamaru said nothing, but at the words "wonders of maternity" he cringed._

"_I'm happy for you," Hinata said, smiling just slightly with clouded, shadowed white eyes. Neji was on an Anbu mission._

"_Another round of sake in honor of Sakura's pregnancy!" Lee proposed while huge, shining tears adorning his reddened, round face. Cheers were heard all around and boisterous conversations echoed pleasingly up and down the table as all the former genins of Konoha celebrated together. Sakura grasped Naruto's hand tightly and put it against her stomach to feel the life inside._

"Akina-chan?" a concerned voice was asking. The blond, green-eyed girl came back to reality quickly, and acknowledged one of her companions with a curt nod.

"Get her the hell out of here," Akina said, and Hinata was unceremoniously kicked out of the third story girls' bathroom.


	5. Jasmine and Chai

AN: Dude, it appears as if Neverwhere will be updated weekly until further notice. However, school is still hell, so if I miss a week don't bug me. But I still need your love to keep up the will, so review, review, review!

Coming Next Chapter: The other end of the cliffhanger and Kanaye – but fleshed out entirely.

_**VOTE:** I'm thinking of doing a chapter full of parodies on previous scenes/mary-sues/etc. Vote on when/where, or if you want one at all!_

Aniki – older brother

**Thanks goes to – **

**Beta: **Kim and Madi

**Happy List: **saturnova, Deiah, Ah-choo, Xoni Newcomer, and Random person

**Chapter 5 – Jasmine and Chai**

It was Thursday. Arakawa Kado knew hell was in the air when he heard the unfortunate door being guillotined sideways in the hallway, followed by the thump of a school bag against the wall and the accompanying rattle of picture frames.

"Akina?" he cautiously called. There was no answer, so he leaned away from the heat of the stove and peered into the dark hallway with storm-colored eyes – and then abruptly turned back around and emptied a brownie onto a paper plate. While counting slowly down from ten in his head, he sloshed milk into a glass and organized the two neatly on the table. When he got to one, Akina burst into the kitchen and threw herself into a chair. She engaged the brownie lump with gusto and drained the glass of milk in two swallows.

"Aniki, today was horrible!" she gushed. "That new Hinata girl stole my bag!"

Kado wanted to mention the earlier noise, which had doubtlessly left a large black skid mark in the white paint, but decided to be patient.

"Our class was researching for an English project in the library, and me, Akiko, Akane, and Rei were just hanging out and laughing at something that dumbass Kanaye-kun had done earlier, when she freaked out and ran off with my bag!"

"Then whose…?"

"I took hers."

The bag was produced and subsequently emptied onto the table. Papers and books spilled out, mostly related to school, but on top of them was a single lined sheet of paper, filled with doodles, all of people, all unlabeled. It seemed to Akina that the sketcher was drawing faces she would soon forget if they weren't physically visible. Akina traced the line of a face with a thumb, wondering at the familiarity of it. There were figures all over the page; here a little girl in a summer kimono with long, dark hair; there the face of a breathtaking man with far-away wide open eyes and unshaded hair spiking out in all directions.

"You shouldn't do this," Kado told Akina, who'd finally managed to tear her eyes away and rustle through the other things. There didn't seem to be anything else quite so personal as the sketches inside.

"She'll do the same to mine," Akina said almost cheerfully.

Kado gave up and went back to his pots of unfinished udon, which he understood far better than the quirks of his little sister. Meanwhile, everything was crammed messily back into Hinata's messenger bag, courtesy of Akina. But the lone sketch page stayed in her hands, under the warm kitchen lights. Akina frowned.

"She's so strange. I think I saw her at a party once, smoking and hanging all over some guys. Now she's acting so shy and weird."

"People change, Akina-chan," Kado countered, rolling his eyes at the stove.

-

"So…how was your fourth day at school?" Kanaye asked Hinata, slapping her on her back as he came up behind her. She jumped when he did this, but immediately broke out into a smile, albeit a strained one. She leaned against a school wall as other people floated past.

"Not good at all," Hinata replied. Kanaye could almost see the raincloud hovering a foot above her head. "I accidentally took Arakawa Akina-san's bag."

"Ooooh,"Kanaye murmured, eyes alight at the sight of a juicy story. "How did that happen?"

"I heard her and her friends laughing at me in the library, and I got really embarrassed and ashamed and ran off. But I took the wrong bag."

Hinata twisted her hands nervously. She was a responsible adult – she'd just go apologize and trade back for her bag. Tomorrow, that is.

"Aw, man," Kanaye groaned. "I thought I was gonna get a good chase scene, or maybe a case of mad rage outta this…but you're so lame. Oh well. Pass me the bag."

"No," Hinata said, seeing where his train of thought was leading. "You're not going to try to blackmail Arakawa-san. It's rude. We won't go through her bag and she won't go through mine."

Seeing a wall, Kanaye changed gears, saying, "Okay then. Do you know how to get home?"

"Yes."

"You go on ahead, I've got a club meeting to go to," he grinned, getting ready to shove off.

"Club meeting?" Hinata floundered.

"Didn't I tell you?" he laughed. "I'm part of the Junior Anti-Drug League."

He let this sink in for a moment. Hinata tried not to say anything, but six days' worth of Kanaye proved too much.

"You're…you're…you're such a hypocrite!" she burst out, and then covered her mouth with an alarmed hand.

"Hey, I don't do anything my mom wouldn't do."

"Your mom…isn't drunk."

"Yeah, but she drinks!" he reasoned.

"You're impossible," Hinata managed to get out.

"I'm not impossible," he grinned. "I'm the vice president."

Hinata left the vice president of the Anti-Drug League behind so she could keep him from getting under her skin any more than he already was.

Kanaye was a nerd, but then again, only on Thursday nights for one hour during club meetings.

-

"I'm going out to play with the band tonight," Kado said from the doorway. "My cell will be on, and the emergency numbers are on the fridge – oh, and extra brownies are in the Tupperware on the counter."

"Okay, Aniki," Akina replied, hugging him tightly on his way out. A smile twitched at his lips and he returned the embrace.

"Maybe you should call Mom," Kado suggested quietly, pulling away and stepping out into the main hall on their floor. Akina didn't reply, slamming the door behind him and shuffling into the living room, where she flopped back onto the couch, eyes focused, but unseeing, on the television. The sketch paper was folded up in her lap and she took it and spread it out. The handsome pencil-mark man came alive in her eyes – she knew his hair was blond and his eyes were blue.

_Sakura put the teapot on the stove and rustled around the pantry for some tealeaves, vaguely listening to her husband conversing on the phone in the other room._

"_Hiya, Hinata-chan," he said loudly, and listened intently for a moment._

_Sakura found the box of chai she'd been looking for, because Naruto liked it, and the box of jasmine for herself. She put them on the counter and leaned on it, lazily watching the steam rise from the metal pot._

"_Sakura's crazy," he grumbled, and Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Ever since she got pregnant, she's been throwing things. Ouch!"_

_The "ouch" was courtesy of Sakura, who had correctly angled a spoon through the doorway directly into the back of Naruto's skull._

"_How are you doing? And Neji? And Nariko-chan?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head and moving away from the door and out of Sakura's line of sight…and projectile range._

"_Listen, Hinata," Naruto said, suddenly serious. "I didn't call you just to catch up. I need you to watch Sakura. She isn't due for another two weeks, but I'd rather have her safe. Besides, she could use help lifting and stuff…sorry about this…but…Sasuke left without me, and now I have to chase him. He knows it's important, so why couldn't he wait? Goddammit!"_

_He sighed, and Sakura came in and stood at the doorway, quietly watching, stance open. He was pacing with one fist clenched, eyes open and blue but just a few shades away from red._

"_Thanks," he said. "See ya later."_

_The phone was replaced on its hook, and now his attention was all on Sakura. He was two steps away and, quickly closing the distance between them, pulled her up into his arms and spun her around a few paces. She smiled and buried her nose in his collar, breathing in his earthy musk._

"_I have to go now, Sakura-chan," he said, lifting her face to his with a hand. _

"_I know, Naruto," she grumbled against his mouth. "But I want you to stay with me."_

"_When I come back," he started, "We'll have tea together on the balcony. And it'll be raining."_

_He kissed her one last time, and lifted up her shirt to bestow a kiss on her pregnant belly. Then he bounded out the window and was gone._

_It was Sakura's turn to sigh, and return to her kitchen, one that was so big and so empty now. She put the chai tea back onto the lowest pantry shelf and went to lean out of the window from which he'd left. She looked at the sky, waiting for her teapot to whistle and the rain to come._

-

Hinata went to school anyway, despite the intense, acute, stabbing feeling in her stomach. She just needed to get this over with. Akina's bag hung on her shoulder, loosely flapping about in the morning air. After Kanaye's third attempt had been thwarted by Hinata, he'd pretty much given up trying to "take a measley little peek" inside.

He let her go upstairs to class unimpeded, and went his way happily.

However, it was only so long before the call of nature made him take to the now empty halls, en route to the boys' bathroom.

"Holy shit," he said, because Akina was next to the door of said bathroom, leaning against the wall, looking at him. She stood up as he came closer.

"I have a question," she stated, putting her hands on her hips.

"Do you wanna ask me out?" he lazily asked, grinning like a shark.

"NO!" Akina spewed, venomously glaring up at him.

Kanaye slumped a little, his expression fazing back into the normal, bored look, and said, "Oh, well in that case – yes, he's a jerk but he really loves you on the inside so you should call him back."

"I'm not looking for advice!" Akina hissed.

"Huh?"

"I'M NOT LOOKING FOR ADVICE!"

"Then what _do_ you want?" Kanaye groaned. "I need to piss."

Akina deflated a little, and pulled out a folded up piece of paper from one of her tight pants' pockets. She unfolded Hinata's sketch page and held it up to him.

"So?" he grumbled. "Someone drew people. Move outta the way."

"Do you know who they are?" Akina asked.

"What?"

She looped a foot through his headphone cord and stomped downwards, effectively ripping them out of his ears.

"I said, DO YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE?"

"You're so loud," Kanaye muttered.

"No, that's your music. I can hear it from here."

Kanaye gave the drawings a critical eye, at least for appearance's sake, and said:

"I give up. Who are they?"

She was so close to wrapping her fingers around his neck and choking the life out of him – if only she didn't need this one bit of information.

"I DON'T KNOW! THAT'S WHY I'M ASKING YOU!"

Kanaye eyed her, and moved to step into the bathroom, but she blocked him. Defeated, he shuffled backwards a little and tried to get somewhat serious.

"Look, would you at least tell me who did the drawings?" he asked, crossing his arms, irritated with how this was going.

"Your girlfriend," Akina explained.

"Who?"

"Hinata…Sorano…whatever."

"Well, it all started with my childhood," Kanaye began.

"I don't _want_ to hear about your childhood," Akina ground out.

"Okay, then I'll skip to the good part: _she's not my girlfriend_!"

"Don't avoid the question!" Akina barked.

"I don't even remember what the question was! Why don't you just ask Hinata?" Kanaye retaliated, spiky black hair shaking in emphasis.

Akina anxiously twirled her long hair around a finger, her face the picture of tension. She remembered the awkward exchange in its entirety: Hinata trying to stammer out an apology while Akina just snatched her bag back and thrust Hinata's into her arms, making a quick getaway afterwards.

"I can't," Akina muttered.

"This is one of those 'girl things,' isn't it?" Kanaye said, tone suspicious. "I can't handle that stuff."

This time, Akina let him slid past her into the bathroom.

**-**

Akina laughed with Akiko as she told a funny story about her boyfriend and the beach, and Yumeko tapped her on the shoulder to ask if Akina was going to the movies on Saturday. The whole group was mingling outside after school, chatting and lounging in the shade of a tree on campus. Akina's sharp eyes, glancing at the school doors every now and then, finally caught sight of Kanaye and Hinata leaving the building.

"There they are," Akina murmured, and loudly told her clique, "I'm gonna get that bitch."

They smirked, to varying degrees, and let Akina pass.

She stomped up to Kanaye and Hinata, determined not to lose her nerve. Kanaye scrammed as soon as she appeared – apparently he'd had enough of Akina's wrath for the day. Akina dragged Hinata off, around the corner of the school building and out of sight from the school population. Akina put one arm out to hold Hinata in place and with the other dug out the pictures Hinata had drawn. She held them up to the sun.

"Who are they, Hinata?"


	6. Portraits of the Past

**AN:** Not that anyone reads this, but this chapter was postponed because last week I had Streetpainting Festival on Saturday, and on Sunday I worked on artwork due that week for maybe 8 hours straight.

**Beta: **Kim and Madi

**Review Reply:**

Tig Jones: I want you to know that while I think your analysis was wonderful, you're still missing a piece of the puzzle. :smile: You'll see, but not this chapter.

saturnova: Let's just say she wants to confirm her suspicions.

**Happy List: **Tig Jones, Dead Fairytales, Ah-choo, saturnova, and Hell Devil

Koi – Ornamental fish usually kept in ponds. They come in a wide variety of colors.

Soba – Japanese buckwheat noodle.

**Chapter 6 – Portraits of the Past**

"Who are they, Hinata?"

Hinata pulled away and stared at Akina, mortified. She was asking. She was actually asking…

"Why did you take it?" Hinata mourned aloud, feeling lost. "It's…that's…"

"It was really important," Akina urgently annunciated, taking a step forward to make up for Hinata's step back.

"I don't want to talk about this," Hinata replied, stopping her hand before it could touch the paper in the sun. It was only a doodle, right? She started to walk away.

"Wait-" Akina gasped, grabbing a hold on the back of Hinata's school jacket, yanking it to turn her around. Hinata leaned into the force of the spin and easily knocked off the offending arm with one palm. Then she stopped moving and curled inwards.

It wasn't just that. It was everything. There's no place like home.

"Don't touch me," Hinata cried, sliding onto the grass and bringing her hands up to cradle her face. Akina stood there for a moment before she wilted and drooped onto the grass as well.

"It's okay, everything's going to be okay," she tried, digging out a tissue and pressing it to Hinata's fingers. Hinata sniffled sadly into it. When one of Hinata's hands dropped, she placed the sketch paper into it. There was quiet now, a kind of intense silence brought on by two people trying to fit into a too-small space.

"I shouldn't have done this," Akina admitted. She made to leave, as though would somehow fix things, but Hinata's voice stopped her.

"This…This…This is Nariko-chan, here and here," she pointed out in a petal-soft tone, her finger on the paper. Akina froze, instantly hypnotized. "Her favorite things are the swing set in the garden and the koi in the pond. She loves soba and wants to be a bird when she grows up."

Hinata paused, and her fingertips brushed another face. "This is Neji-kun. He doesn't talk much, but he brings me flowers back from his missions sometimes. And this…this is…"

"Naruto," Akina breathed, savoring the memory renewed. Hinata slowly raised her head and met with Akina's eyes. Akina extended her hand and gripped Hinata's.

"We haven't been properly introduced," she explained. "My name is Uzumaki Sakura."

oo

Akina leapt onto the phone before the first ring even ended and whipped it up to her ear.

"Hinata?" she prompted.

"No," the voice on the other end of the line replied, sounding hesitant. "This is your mother. Akina-listen-"

Akina replaced the phone on its hook. When it started to ring again, she let Kado pick it up.

"Hello?...Mom. She did? I'll talk to her about it…right," Kado said, glancing at Akina through the doorway. "I know, I know…okay. Love you. Bye."

Akina rolled over onto her bed to glare at her brother as he shuffled in and plopped down next to her.

"She loves you, you know," he sighed. "She hasn't seen you in a year and a half and you still won't talk to her."

"She's not my mother anymore," Akina retaliated.

"She'll always be our mom," Kado said. He dragged his fingers through his hair and huffed in frustration. "It's not like she killed Dad, Akina."

"She may as well have," Akina snapped. "Just shut up, Kado. Get the hell out of my room."

"It's my apartment," he replied coolly. "And if you tell me to shut up again, you're going _home_."

He left anyway and returned to his own room. Sounds of tapping on the keyboard resumed a minute later. The phone rang again. This time, Akina slowly stretched out and plucked the phone from its cradle.

"May I please speak to Akina-san?" Hinata's voice asked nicely.

"You can call me Akina-chan or Sakura-chan if you like," Akina answered, feeling a rush of warmth for the bond they now shared. She could almost feel Hinata's hopeful smile over the phone.

"Okay, Sakura-chan."

"Listen, Hinata-chan, I've been thinking…we need to find the others, right? And you can draw, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, apparently our school is hosting an art show. So the easiest way to find out if anyone else goes to our school is for you to enter a picture of someone we know. Who would you say was the most well-known Konoha shinobi? Tsunade-sama? Naruto?"

"I remember Naruto's face best," Hinata offered.

"Okay. Would you mind doing a portrait?"

"Not at all. I want…home. If this is the best way…"

"It should work," Akina mused. "Don't worry, Hinata. We'll find them."

oo

Hinata hung up the phone and hugged herself, bursting with newfound hope. Sakura had promised to help. She hummed to herself as she washed the dinner dishes.

The door banged open and Hinata jumped. Hanako stumbled in, a bottle of vodka clutched in one clammy hand, and started bawling out a sad love ballad in a nasal wail that would have made a banshee cringe. Hanako mournfully puddled into a kitchen chair and emptied most of the bottle into the glass Hinata had left out for her, pulling the full dinner plate (also courtesy of Hinata) towards her as she did so.

"C'mere, Hina'achan," she slurred. Hinata obediently sat down across from Kanaye's mother.

"Don't drink any more of that," Hinata pleaded. "You need a good night's sleep, and you're going to be sick in the morning already judging by how much of that bottle is empty. It's late, Nikkou-san."

"Lemme tell you a bedtime shtory," Hanako continued, immune to Hinata's logic. "Onceuponatime, inna galas-glala…place far, far, away, there was a beyoooutiful young nurse, fresh outta college. She fell in love wif a haaansome young doco-docot…surgeon."

Hanako stopped to nurse her glass of vodka and roll her head in her hands. Once she was sure her neck would indeed support her head, she remembered her story.

"Anyways, they fell in loooove…yeah….love – "

Hanako paused again to allow a dreamy smile to float across her face.

"Love?" Hinata wondered quietly, her own secret smile flitting across her lips through her worry.

"Love," Hanako reassured her. "An' everyfing was good for a while. But then-then – the surgeon told th' beyoooutiful nurse that his wife had foun' out – an' the nurse didn' evenknow tha' he had a wife. That bas'ard…asshole. He loved his wife more than her. An' the nurse – she had accidenally got pregnant by then an' – but she had him. The baby. An' the surgeon went away wif his wife an' lived happily ever after."

Hanako was weeping by now, dinner forgotten, bent into a strange, sad heap on her cracked kitchen chair.

"Happy Anniversary," she crooned, downing the rest of the glass. Then Hanako lost her balance and collapsed onto the tile, twisted and broken.

Hinata had gotten down to help Hanako to her bed when Kanaye materialized out of the hall shadows. He knelt next to his mother and softly smoothed her hair away from her face.

"I'm sorry," Hinata started nervously. "It was none of my business, I should've left – or something – and I'm sorry about your father – and – "

Kanaye stopped her with a look: the dark, protective, quiet kind.

"I don't have a dad," he said. "Just a mom."

Hinata helped him carry his mother to the master bedroom, where they tucked her into the sheets and let her sleep.

oo

_Hinata looked up when the man with the white Anbu mask hopped in through the kitchen window. She and Sakura stopped their chat and left their jasmine tea to cool. _

"_Did Naruto leave already?" he asked. _

"_Yes," Sakura answered curiously. "An hour ago. Why?"_

"_I was told to relay a message to him," he replied. "But not to follow him if he'd already left, because that would be too dangerous."_

_Neji removed the mask and faced Hinata. "A messenger just arrived in the village – "_

Hinata awoke to the sound of shoes clomping on linoleum tile. She rolled over and faced the kitchen, instantly alert, but it was only Kanaye. Her eyes fell on the clock. Wait…four in the morning?

She rolled back over, waiting for him to come badger her awake, or drop water on her head, but it never came. Puzzled, Hinata sat up when she heard the front door open and close.

Where was he going at this hour? Hinata began to fidget when she remembered all the news articles she'd been reading recently, the ones about people murdered in dark alleyways and kids caught in drive-by shootings. Then she got up, quickly dressed, and left the apartment to follow him.


	7. As I Walked Out

**AN:** New feature: now Madi and Kim have also decided to become the official Fire Department for Neverwhere. This means they will be responding to all future flames, not me – because, as Kim put it while catching me in a stranglehold, "You just suck!"

This post was delayed due to a dress I had to make over the weekend. This was not optional. It's for a grade in my AP 2-D Art class.

**NO UPDATES** for the next two weekends, because I won't have access to a computer.

**Beta & Fire Department:** Kim and Madi

**Review Response:**

Just to everyone: Sorry, guys, I can't answer questions on the future here. I told you that already, although it's possible you didn't read the AN.

**Love Love Love: **MommyRogers, saturnova, xl-twisted-lx, esther, Xoni Newcomer, AnimeFan-Angel, and OspreyAnimeG

**Translations:**

kanji – Japanese lettering

sake – rice wine; traditionally served hot

**Chapter 7 – As I Walked Out**

"_Into many a green valley_

_Drifts the appalling snow;_

_Time breaks the threaded dances_

_And the diver's brilliant bow."_

– WH Auden, "As I Walked Out One Evening"

Following Kanaye wasn't as hard as she expected it to be. He moved much more slowly than she did, and the early morning darkness provided a lot of cover, as did building corners. He didn't turn around even once as they walked down the city blocks.

The place where he stopped was what surprised Hinata most of all. It was on its own block, enclosed by a wrought iron fence. Grass and trees rustled and whispered, just out of reach of sickly pale streetlights. Kanaye went through the open gates with Hinata trailing him discreetly at a distance. She looked at the kanji on the iron twists above her head: "PEACE," it read. She entered.

The rows of cement and granite blocks were long and many, interspaced with strips of grass and tree and sidewalk. All the blocks were sized differently, some more ornate than others. Kanaye strolled down a row and stopped at one. He hunched cross-legged in front of it. Hinata ducked behind a tree.

He drew out a bottle of sake from the depths of his big navy jacket and clinked it onto the cement before him, along with two ceramic cups. Hinata watched the steam wisp away in the wind as he poured the hot drink into both cups. He placed one cup on the words "IN LOVING MEMORY OF" and took the other into his hands. Kanaye knocked the two mugs together and then took a long draught from his.

"Happy…uh…Death-day, man," he mumbled. "Hope the girls are all over you in heaven or whatever."

He went quiet and Hinata's breathing suddenly became too loud for her ears, but he didn't hear, and he didn't look over his shoulder. Kanaye rested there for a small eternity, sipping hot sake.

The sky got lighter as he stayed there alone, and little chalky motes of orange and pink started to dust themselves over the skyline. Kanaye finally stood and looked up, pale skin glowing with dawn, black hair reflecting and refracting the orange and yellow. He looked like a young god rising. Hinata blushed under the shadow she hid in as Kanaye ambled out the gate, hands stuffed in pockets.

One ceramic cup was left on the stone, Hinata noticed, and it was still full of slowly cooling liquid.

00

Hinata knew it was none of her business. Still, the fact that Kanaye had visited a graveyard at four in the morning was unnerving. As she glanced behind her at the blazing sky, she decided not to ask him.

Kanaye was striding faster now, and Hinata abandoned a little stealth so she could keep up. She was finally forced to break out into a run, her shoes thumping on the sidewalk heavily.

She looked up and Kanaye was gone. Hinata kept running, wildly glancing around to see where he was, and squeaked as she was yanked into a shadowed side alley by one arm: Kanaye's raised fist stopped only an inch from her face before he recognized her. His face twisted into a grimace as he fought to assess the situation.

"You…followed me?" he tried, forcing his arm down to his side. Hinata shakily nodded and brought her fingers up to entwine them with each other as she stared numbly at the concrete beneath her feet.

"Why the _hell_ did you follow me! I think I made it pretty fuckin' obvious that I wanted to be alone if I left that early!" he exploded, clenching his fists at his sides, his face darkening like a thunderhead's. "You could've just left me the _fuck_ alone!"

Nothing came out when Hinata tried to speak. Her heart was jumping in her chest, frenetically thumping out a tattoo loud to her ears. Her eyes were wet and she trembled like a leaf in a hurricane.

"Fuc – no – don't cry," Kanaye panicked, remembering how Hinata wasn't Sorano. "C'mon, Hinata…"

"I was worried," Hinata said in her smallest voice.

"I'll walk us home," he sighed stiffly.

Kanaye helped her out of the alley and into the morning sunlight. The screaming of cars as they zoomed by was the only thing that interrupted Hinata and Kanaye's new silence. They walked a block or two that way before Hinata started speaking again. When she did, she laughed.

"You were right about me, that night you got drunk and asked me about my life," Hinata smiled, feeling a bit better. "I did have an unrequited love."

"Sasuke was your lover-boy?" Kanaye prodded, his tense muscles relaxing a bit.

"No," Hinata answered. "His name was Naruto. He was the strongest, kindest ninja in my village. I loved him with everything I had, because he was everything I wanted to become."

"What happened?" Kanaye asked, despite himself.

"My arranged marriage," Hinata replied. Kanaye took it all in and thought about it.

"Why are you telling me all this?" he finally asked.

"I think I'm dead," was Hinata's lament. "The dead don't need secrets anymore."

"You mean you're a ghost possessing Sorano's body?"

"I don't know."

Their apartment building materialized through the smog, a rust-colored affair with mirror windows that made it look like picture frames for the sky. Kanaye brushed back his hair with long fingers and crossed his arms. He stopped walking.

"Me and him were friends since we were little kids. He was one of those guys who needed to have the perfect grades, but he didn't have a photographic memory or nothin'. So he started doing shit to keep him up all night to study. About a year ago he overdosed and died," he gruffly admitted, looking far away into the horizon. "They found him on the bathroom floor shaking with bloodshot eyes and an empty pill bottle, and by the time they got him to the hospital he was gone. This is the first time I've visited him since then."

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"Don't be," he said. Then he seemed to zoom in on Hinata, his face torn but still bright.

"You'd better not tell my mom about any of this," he warned. "Just to make sure, I'm going to have you do the ultimate swear…one that has been passed down from generation to generation over the millennia – "

Hinata swallowed.

" – the _pinky swear_," Kanaye enunciated melodramatically.

"Huh?" Hinata backtracked, thrown into the sort of vertigo only Kanaye could create. "Pink?"

"No, no, no, _pinky_ as in the finger. Here, let me show you."

Kanaye looped her pinky through his and curled her other fingers down with his other hand. The sun peeked around its orange clouds to watch them.

"Now repeat after me. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye…uh…something something something something."

"I don't think you can die more than once," Hinata mused, moving her face closer to his.

"Just say it," he rebutted irritably.

She did.

00000000

"Why are we doing this again?" Kanaye grumbled.

"Akina is a ninja named Sakura that I used to be friends with," Hinata explained again. "And I have a drawing in the art show, so I should be there."

"Right, right" was Kanaye's tuned out reply. School wasn't far away enough that they couldn't walk to it, but he really didn't like standing there on a street corner, waiting for Akina to come down. "We've been standing here for fifteen minutes. Is this one of those 'fashionably late' girl things? Or is she just not going to – "

00

" – show up," Akina was saying as she twirled the phone cord around one tapered finger, crowned with golden gloss. "But I'm going to try and get dirt on her, so don't hang out with me unless I come up to you first, okay, Akiko? Tell the others, too."

With that she replaced the phone on its hook and clicked over to the mirror in her heels to rouge her lips into a glowing shade of peach-pink.

"You're going to be late," Kado called from the kitchen.

"No, I won't," Akina barked back, clipping her purse off the chair from which it hung and checking the mirror for last-minute imperfections. She sighed. "Hinata probably has some dress sense, but Kanaye…he'd better not wear something stupid, like – "

00

" – my beret?" Kanaye smirked, adjusting the limp black hat on his head. "I found it in my mom's closet, buried under a whole bunch of her 60's crap. And look, here's a fake moustache I can add on."

Hinata plucked the moustache from his grasp before he could paste it to his face.

"Please don't," she groaned. Besides the black beret, Kanaye wore a black collared shirt and black pants. With the beret on, it made him look like a foppish art critic. Hinata deftly slid the moustache into one of the bushes lining the sidewalk.

Akina swept out the apartment complex door at that moment, keys jangling.

"Hello, Hinata-chan," she smiled. "Sorry I'm late. Hey K – …oh my god."

He wiggled his eyebrows at her and twirled an imaginary moustache.

Akina went for the beret to snatch it off his head, but he pulled away and leaned out of reach.

"Hinata," he complained. "Do you see what she's doing? I told you I wouldn't put on a fake accent if I could wear the beret, and now she's trying to ruin our deal."

"Please, Sakura-chan, just leave it," Hinata muttered. Akina gave up.

"If they ask, I don't know you," she grumbled in Kanaye's general direction.

Kanaye had offered Hinata only one maxim before they had left his apartment: "The way I look at it, you have to be either drunk or insane to go to an art show." He felt that this justified the beer he'd downed before leaving. It was, as he said, "just enough to get a buzz going".

0000000

Half the school was there. The art ranged from stunning to abysmal. Here was a triptych, each panel six feet tall, painted in acrylic. Three flowing faces peered out from the canvas, each bleeding from their forehead. There was a nondescript, blotchy pencil landscape right next to a charcoal and graphite dreamscape of a bright tree choking on black ice. There was even a suspiciously cubistic ink and watercolor piece taped to the makeshift gallery door, probably because there was no other room.

Hinata watched the shifting, laughing, loud crowds from her niche. No one had come up to ask her about her piece yet, a graphite portrait with oil pastel blue eyes. She was hunched in a corner, next to her portrait of Naruto, trying to ignore the thumping bass speaker across the room. Kanaye was talking to some of the people he hung out with at school, and their obnoxious laughter easily carried itself to Hinata's ears. Akina chattered with her clique in the center of the room.

Kanaye moseyed over and slouched against the wall next to Hinata.

"Are you sure she's not pulling your leg?" Kanaye questioned, eyes on the flashes of Akina they could glimpse through the walls of people.

"What?" Hinata asked.

"Y'know, pulling your leg? Yanking your chain? Pulling the wool over your eyes?" Kanaye continued. "Eviscerating your dignity unbeknownst to you, maybe?"

Hinata looked blankly at him.

"Are you sure Akina is a ninja like you?" Kanaye finally demanded.

"Yes."

"Fine, as long as you're sure," Kanaye relented. "I'll just be off to grab some of those little mini cocktail hotdog things, then. Never refuse free food, that's my motto."

Hinata watched him duck under and around the bodies to snatch tasty morsels from a proffered serving tray. Akina clacked over to Hinata in her heels just then, offering Hinata a smile.

"Do you need a break?" she asked. "You've been standing there for almost an hour, I think. If anyone comes over, I can talk to them, even if I can't remember as much as you do yet."

"Well, I do have to go to the bathroom," Hinata said doubtfully.

"Go, then," Akina insisted. "I can wait here until you get back."

"Alright," Hinata agreed, and slipped off through the crowds herself.

Akina glanced at Hinata's final piece then, and couldn't look away. Hinata had somehow managed to catch a spark of that devious piety that was Naruto in her work, one that found its way past the face that was frozen on the paper. Maybe it was the singular blue she used for the eyes, Akina found herself thinking.

"Kinda looks like me, doesn't it?" a heavily accented voice asked in Japanese from behind her.

Akina's breath caught in her throat. The boy standing there smiled cheekily, the grin spreading from one side of his face to the other in a flash. He had golden hair that radiated out from his head like a halo and eyes that shifted like the sea, flashing green and blue in the bright studio lights.

"I-I – " Akina stammered, faced with a world of possibility and bewildered on what direction to take. She glanced at the door to the girls' bathroom to see if Hinata would be able to offer support anytime soon.

By the time she turned back around, he was gone.


	8. Thunder Without Rain

AN: I'm back. And I just read **Forests of the Heart** by Charles de Lint, which is a really good book. Not quite **East of Eden** (Steinbeck), but up there for sure if you like modern myth.

**Beta & Fire Department: **Kim and Madi

**Review Response:**

OspreyAnimeG: As much as I would like to answer that, I can't, because that would ruin the story for everyone. Remember: questions on the future will be answered by upcoming chapters.

**Happy List:** AnimeFan-Angel, disama, saturnova, OspreyAnimeG, and shikaruTo

**Chapter 8 – Thunder Without Rain**

This quote is directed especially to you, my beloved reader.

"_There will be time to murder and create,_

_And time for all the works and days of hands,_

_That lift and drop a question on your plate;_

_Time for you and time for me,_

_And time yet for a hundred indecisions,_

_And for a hundred visions and revisions,_

_Before the taking of a toast and tea." _

T.S. Eliot, _The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_

"Omigod! Hinata-chan!" Akina squeaked when Hinata returned to her corner. Akina was grinning like the Cheshire cat, and grasped Hinata's hands with all of her fingers. "Guess who I saw!"

"Ummmm…" Hinata murmured, but there was no need to answer.

"I saw Naruto!" she gushed, blue eyes alight with an inner burn that suddenly swept over Hinata as well in a wave of joy. "He came up to me and told me the picture looked like him! _And he has Naruto's smile!_"

Hinata couldn't stop Akina's infectious grin from touching her own lips, but she had to ask.

"Are you sure it's him?" Hinata questioned.

"I…I can feel it…in here," Akina said, touching her chest and blushing.

"Good," Hinata smiled. "I'm happy for you."

They laughed together, and Akina pulled Hinata into a gleeful jig, in time to some rock song banging on the stereo. This was how Kanaye found them, returning after trying to chat up a couple of girls on the other side of the room.

"What is this?" he grumbled, gesturing at them after pushing the beret out of his eyes. Akina twirled out of Hinata's hands and gestured right back at him much more emphatically.

"There was this guy that we're sure is Naruto and he was really cute and he had blond hair and blue, no, bluish-green, eyes and a great smile!" Akina burst out.

Kanaye scooted away from Akina's flailing hands and replied, "I lost you at 'guy.'" But neither Akina nor Hinata was paying attention to him now, so he sighed and said, "I guess I'll just go get us some punch."

He was positive they hadn't heard, but he left anyway. This was obviously a ninja thing, way out of his league. He dodged and skidded around people and sculptures on their pedestals to the snack table, where a glistening bowl of cherry red punch awaited him. He eagerly poured himself a glass and brought it to his mouth, choking and spraying the stuff before it could go down his throat.

"This tastes like cow piss!"

Meanwhile, Akina and Hinata were deep in conversation.

"Think about it, Hinata-chan," she said. "If Naruto was here, then he probably goes to our school. That's good. He has an accent, blond hair, and blue eyes – so it's also safe to assume he's foreign."

"Your Japanese is flawless, Sakura-chan, and you have blond hair and, well, green eyes," Hinata noted quietly.

"Yeah, but my dad was half-Japanese and lived here most of his life," Akina explained. "I learned the language at home, though not enough writing."

Kanaye swished in at that moment with two plastic cups full of kool-aid-looking punch and passed one to Hinata. He took a swig out of the other one.

"That was rude, not to get me one," Akina informed him.

"You didn't deserve one."

"You can have mine. I don't want it anyway," Hinata said before the situation could escalate into a full-blown war.

Akina gladly received the plastic cup and sipped at its lip for a while. Kanaye downed his like a shot of tequila and went back for more. Akina and Hinata watched him sway unsteadily over to a surrealist-looking piece. A crowd began to gather around him as he started up a rousing, rambling critique of the painting. He hiccupped and stumbled around throughout his discussion, hands flinging wildly about in emphasis of whatever point he was trying to make.

"Y'see – hic – the stiffness of this figa – fi – person an' the texture of th' paint reminds me more a' Frida Kahlo than Dali – hic – although I suppose you could say Dali wasn't a surrealist 'cause he got kicked outta their group an' all, but anyways, the symbolism of the green vines is that whole growth an' fertility spiel, like Frida's stuff. But the person is waaaay too centere – hic – centered and upsets the balance, y'know, between that and them weird little thingies floating around on the sides of the painting. And that complemenene…complemen'ary red and green in the corners doesn't do much good, either 'cause the rest of the thing's colors are a lot more drab," Kanaye ranted, squishing the beret back over his charcoal-black hair when it fell off.

"I didn't know Kanaye knew anything about art…I mean, he was lamenting over coming here," Hinata pondered aloud. "So I didn't think he liked it at all."

Half of Akina's kool-aid punch was gone and she looked at her cup as she answered.

"Whoop-de-doo for him."

Kanaye finally came away from the artwork when he heard a new song start on the loudspeakers. With a cry of "It's the Macarena, everyone!" he leapt into the dance, dragging several others along with him. By the time the song ended, Kanaye had a quarter of the room dancing with him. He spun off at the end and snatched up a cup of punch, gracelessly careening towards one of the teachers with it in hand.

"Here's some punch, Hadaka-sensei," he proclaimed, gently propelling the cup into the startled woman's grasp. "It's delicious. Have some."

He flashed a pointed smile at her and made off before she could say anything.

By now, Hinata was thoroughly tired. She was tired of standing and waiting and tired of this party. It wasn't like she was here for the food and company anyway. Akina was off mingling again and who knew where Kanaye was, but he was probably enjoying himself. Parties like this were a reminder of others she had attended, more out of protocol then preference. They were different, but still, parties were parties, and that meant that Hinata was always in the same place – against the wall.

_Hyuuga functions were always restrained. People talked in controlled, level tones and the only accompanying hum was from an imported mandolin player tucked away in a corner of the meeting hall. But Hinata had always been, and would always be, a wallflower. She watched her father make his rounds with the government officials and businessmen, the upper crusts new and old. She also watched Neji nii – no, he'd told her not to call him that anymore – Neji on the opposite side of the room from her, leaning against a wall, watching, like her. His eyes met hers for a sliver of a second, white on white. Hinata looked away first, just as he father stepped in front of her._

"_Hinata," he said carefully, "I'd like you to meet our guest of honor, Harugawa-san. You have met him before, when you were a small child, but I doubt you remember."_

_But he was wrong, she did remember. Hinata gave the middle-aged man a formal bow, her kimono swishing and parting intimately, internally shrinking away from the appraising look he gave her, his eyes roaming up and down her covered chest and legs, then finally up to her face. Her father was already gone, pulled away by another guest to converse on a business interest of his._

"_Pleased to meet you, Harugawa-san," Hinata intoned, cringing on the inside. The man chuckled._

"_Indeed. I am pleased to make your acquaintance as well, Hyuuga Hinata-san."_

_She only saw a blur of motion for a half-second before there was someone standing in front of her, also bowing, but with a slight mocking accent in the way his body was held, perhaps in the way he met Harugawa-san's eyes while not bowing low enough at all._

"_And I am Hyuuga Neji, her new husband," he said softly, in a tone that could easily be mistaken for indifference. "**Pleased to meet you.**"_

_With the way he said it, it could have meant something else entirely._

_**You touch her, you die.**_

Of course, now wasn't anything like then, Hinata mused. Not really. And yet she felt a pang anyway, one of regret and loss.

But she still had to get out of here, still needed to get air, and still needed to rid herself of the claustrophobic feeling. On her way out, she stopped to see for a moment the Conga line Kanaye had started, and watched him lead his followers into a tuneless, shouted rendition of some song she'd never heard of. It really looked like Kanaye, despite his reservations coming here, was having a good time. So were the people dancing on the snack tables, apparently, and the people making out in the corner and against the walls, and Hadaka-sensei, who was having a conversation with a plastic and wood sculpture of a goldfish. A couple of people were even passed out on the floor.

Then it came to her: a feeling, the rising of the hackles on her neck, the uncomfortable, squishy air. Someone had been watching her, maybe for a while. Her eyes darted around the room, trying to pick out anyone who would meet her gaze, but no one noticed her. She shook her head and fled to the relative safety of the hallway. Hinata spotted a water fountain a little ways away and took a long cool drink from it before slumping against a wall, vaguely wondering when Akina and Kanaye would want to leave – not that she would make them go before they were ready, though.

She heard the gallery door creak open but paid it no mind. The figure entering her periphery probably just wanted a drink from the water fountain anyway. She continued to believe this until he slammed a hand into the wall next to her head. Then she looked up, straight into shadowy, swirling brown eyes that stared down at her. Flaming red hair, obviously dyed, stuck out from his head in short spikes with natural black roots showing underneath. Probably the most startling things were the silver spike rammed through his eyebrow and the three safety pins jutting out from his ears.

Hinata was pressed against the wall and he loomed over her silently, foreboding and formidable in his black trench coat. Hinata's gaze moved down, away from his eyes, and found a white wife-beater, umber pants, and finally, black and white bowling shoes. When he spoke after the eternity of quiet that had lay between them, it was in a smooth middle tenor, dark and cool.

"The piece you were standing by. It was yours."

It wasn't a question. There was something vaguely threatening about him, Hinata decided. She nodded quickly.

"Who is in the portrait?" he demanded.

"Do…do you know him?" Hinata tried.

"I asked you first."

Hinata reluctantly answered, slowly, "An old friend of mine."

It was then that Kanaye slid up in between the two of them, which brought his face inches away from the other teen's. He regarded the red-haired boy, half a head taller than him, with a glazed-over glare.

"Leave my drinking buddy alone," he said firmly, and then looked at Hinata. Then he looked at the unknown intruder again. "Yeah, buddy, an' it won' just be me jumpin' you from a dark alley. She's…she'll Gentle Slap you into the world o' pain, an' then blast you inta oblivion wif her laser beam eyes."

The guy just looked at him blankly and arched a hand over Kanaye, slipping something into Hinata's jacket pocket. His icy expression wrinkled into a mild look of disgust, more for Kanaye than Hinata, and then he strode off down the hall before Kanaye could continue his tirade, his trench coat whipping out dramatically behind him with the pace he set.

"You saved me," Hinata smiled gently at Kanaye. "My hero."

Kanaye smiled back, and then hunched over and grimaced.

"I'm gonna puke," he moaned. There was no time to see what the tall stranger had given her. Hinata had to get Kanaye outside. Now.

Akina entered the scenario at that moment, poking her head out of the doorway.

"Oh, Hinata," she said sleepily. "I wondered where you went 'cause you weren' by your pic – pica – piece anymore."

"We have to go," Hinata replied urgently. "Kanaye's sick."

"It's only Akina," he mumbled. "It's fine if I puke on her."

Akina's reply was to stick out her tongue and slam the door shut again.

Hinata barely got Kanaye out of the school and into the early evening before he emptied the contents of his stomach into the nearest bush. Hinata kept his hair out of his face and rubbed small, comforting circles on his back.

Kanaye just wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said cheerfully, "That was fun. Let's do that again sometime."

0000000000

Kanaye was asleep the moment Hinata pushed him into bed. This left her to sit alone at the kitchen table, excused by Hanako from making dinner tonight because she was going out with some friends. So Hinata fished in her jacket pocket to pull out a folded piece of paper with shaking fingers, and she carefully unfolded this gift from the tall stranger. As she stared at what was inside, she was struck by a memory.

_She was in Sakura's kitchen once again, sipping jasmine tea, looking at the masked man from the Anbu who'd been sent to deliver a message to Naruto._

_Neji removed the mask and faced Hinata. "A messenger arrived in the village, the fastest bird from the Sand. The Kazekage has been murdered."_

There was a line drawing inside, a portrait of Gaara.


	9. Unreal City

AN: Recently, I read **The Waste Land** by T.S. Eliot and I want to let you guys know that it is an absolutely stunning poem so you can go and read it. Right now. Er, I mean, after you finish this chapter.

**Beta & Fire Department:** Kim and Madi

**Love you guys:** MommyRogers, Dead Fairytales, saturnova, and Shells. I love you all, and thank you for all compliments.

**Chapter 9 – Unreal City**

"Unreal City,

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,

I had not thought death had undone so many."

– T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"

When Hinata crawled off her futon in the living room and glanced at the kitchen clock, she realized it was 7:30. In the ensuing confusion, she tripped over her sheets, banged her ribs on the coffee table, and hopped into her uniform as fast as humanly possible while massaging a bruised stomach. Then she flew into Kanaye's room, skirt ends flailing frantically.

"We're late!" she gasped, yanking the tangled comforter away from his body. What she saw made her want to cover everything back up.

His impossibly smooth, sharp features – the ones that made girls come up to him before his personality drove them away – would have made him darkly handsome today if it weren't for his puffy red eyes and spinach-like complexion, coupled with an unidentified crusty substance at the corners of his mouth and eyes.

"Are you sick?" Hinata murmured, putting a hand to his forehead to feel for heat.

"Double hangover," Kanaye wheezed in a death rattle.

"What do you mean?"

"I woke up at 3 AM with a hangover, so I drank to forget it."

"Oh God."

Hinata managed to drag his limp body to the bathroom while he wheezed out death threats in a barely-there voice. She made sure the Advil bottle was in a conspicuous place on the bathroom counter before closing him in. She put an ear to the door until she heard the shower start. Satisfied, Hinata went to make breakfast.

00

The halls were already empty by the time they reached the school, but they heard the PA announcement anyway.

"If anyone has any information concerning the miscreant who spiked the punch, please contact Student Services immediately. Due to the popularity and success of the art show, there will be another next year, but due to said extremely irresponsible action, there will be no refreshments served."

A horrified look dawned on Hinata's face and she turned to Kanaye for reassurance, but all he gave her was a knowing smirk.

00

Akina came over to Hinata after the end-of-first-period-bell stopped ringing and people began to leave. Hinata watched her send away a couple of her lackeys.

"Hi, Hinata-chan," she said.

"Uh, Sakura…I have something to tell you…about the art show," Hinata told her. "It's just…well…I found…Gaara. Of the Sand."

Akina discovered that her throat wouldn't work for several seconds.

"Are you sure?" she whispered. Hinata just showed her the drawing.

"He gave this to me," she offered.

"Good God. What do you want to do?"

"Find him. Talk to him, I suppose," Hinata thought aloud, feeling very strongly that this was much easier said than done.

"At lunch," Akina agreed. "And let me look for Naruto. Please."

"Okay."

They left the empty classroom and headed downstairs together amid the push and pull of students. Akina stopped Hinata at the foot of the stairs, before they went their separate ways.

"Hinata…I've been meaning to ask you this…"

She let Akina fumble for the words for a few moments.

"Your registered name is Toya Sorano, right?"

"Yes."

"But you go by 'Hinata' with everyone, and you don't act anything like you used to. Not that I knew you very well, but…I mean, did getting the memories of another life change you that much? I mean, I feel different, but…"

Her words trailed off and she looked embarrassed.

"That's not the problem," Hinata sighed. "The problem is that I'm not Sorano. She got knocked out somehow and I was the one who woke up."

Akina just stared at her. "You don't know what happened to Sorano?"

"All I know is that I'm nothing like her."

The concerned look disappeared off of Akina's face when she glanced at her Gucci wristwatch.

"We'll talk at lunch," she promised, and jetted off to her next class.

00

Hinata was very, very confused. She'd nicely asked to borrow a yearbook from another person in her third period, and had studiously flipped through every page, searching for the red-haired, dark-eyed boy she'd seen the other night. She couldn't find his picture. Did he even go to this school, then? Or had the changes to his hair and those piercings been recent? Hinata had looked again, but couldn't seem to find his face: no one quite had his pallid skin, streamlined nose and chin, and those thin, slanted eyes.

00

"Hello, Akerou," the man greeted, tilting up his head from behind his desk. "Sorry to call you in at this hour, but my schedule is horrendous this week and only a morning appointment worked out."

There was no answer, but the man wasn't expecting one. He leaned back in his leather chair and steepled his fingers, the sunlight flooding the room from behind him and illuminating the bookshelves in his office. His chair squeaked when he started rocking it back and forth.

"So, Akerou, are you willing to try Group today?" he tried again.

"No."

That was about as emphatic as Akerou ever got. At least it was a response.

"Allegedly it's a better environment for you then just sitting here with me. There are people your own age there."

Silence was all he got. The man heaved a sigh and creaked his leather chair again. Funny how Akerou had picked the one chair in the office that drowned in a deep shadow. He briefly pondered on the possibility of Akerou being a vampire, but quickly shook it off.

"How are you today?" he asked, back on track. The man leaned back in his broad-shouldered chair and kicked his feet up on the table. He listened to the vague sounds of air conditioning, and the chirp of a bird outside the window. He listened to his chair squeak in protest as he rocked it. He smiled.

He didn't need an answer, not now, maybe not even today. They had all the time the world could offer.

00

"Not in the yearbook?" Akina asked. "Did you get his name?"

"No, but he was tall, with bright red hair and piercings," Hinata described.

Akina whisked away to steal the yearbook out of someone's hands and returned promptly, turning the pages until she reached one that had one black square on it in place of a photo. The name corresponding with it read "Shishido Akerou."

"No yearbook picture?" Hinata asked Akina, who shook her head. "What is he like?"

"Well," Akina begain, "if this were the social scale – "

She paused to draw a vertical line on a sheet of notebook paper. At the top she wrote "Popular" and at the bottom she inscribed "Loser."

" – And if I were here and Kanaye were here – "

Akina stopped again to write her name near "Popular" at the top and Kanaye's name next to "Loser."

" – then _he wouldn't even be on the scale_," Akina finished.

"What do you mean?"

"He doesn't talk to anybody, not even the total geeks. If he's Gaara, I'm not surprised."

"That's him," Hinata said faintly.

Akina picked up her bag and pulled out two Styrofoam cups that read "Cup Noodle" on the sides. She returned the yearbook to its owner and came back to give Hinata her blessing. She'd need it.

"Good luck," Akina responded fervently, and left the sunny picnic table to find her blond-haired idiot.

00

Against her better judgment, Hinata walked around outside to find Kanaye so she could get his opinion.

It was, in all honesty, a nice day. This was why most of the student population was in the courtyard, not the cafeteria, even if there were only a few stunted trees there to brighten the concrete atmosphere. Hinata managed to lead Kanaye away from a lunch table full of his laughing cronies and out of their earshot before she started on him.

"Have…have you ever heard of someone called 'Shishido Akerou?'"

Kanaye rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, well, let's just say that anyone who can stick a safety pin through his own ear has balls in my book. Still, you should probably stay away from him, Hinata. He might secretly be a cannibal."

"Actually, Kanaye…I'm pretty sure that you're the one who needs to stay away from him."

"Damn. Did I punch him while I was drunk?"

"No…you told him that I could shoot laser beams from my eyes and Gentle Slap him."

"Then I slugged him?" Kanaye interrupted.

"Um…then you threw up."

"On him?" Kanaye prodded hopefully.

"No."

"Goddamn. What do you want from him, anyway?"

"He's a ninja. Was a ninja. Gaara of the Sand," she explained.

Kanaye studied her and she felt uncomfortable as she tried not to twitch or fidget, as was habit.

"You're sure."

"He drew a picture, Kanaye. Of Gaara."

"And no one in non-Ninja Land looks like this guy?"

"I don't think many people, in my world or yours, tattoo the kanji for love on their forehead, Kanaye," Hinata wearily replied.

00

It took Akina half of lunch to find him. Mostly she walked around campus describing his chiseled, roman features and unique hair and eye color. Since most of the school wasn't blond or Western, this was greatly to her advantage. She located him sitting by himself on the roof of Building 3. Thank goodness someone had seen him climb up the stairs to get here.

At any rate, he looked ridiculously pleased when she introduced herself in English.

"Hi, I'm Akina Arakawa. Mind if I join you?"

"You're welcome to. Sit down anywhere you like," he grinned, speaking in English as well. "I'm Caden North. Whatcha got there?"

Akina put the two steaming Styrofoam cups down and seated herself Indian-style.

"Ramen," she answered. "So you're American?"

"Yeah. I'm a foreign exchange student. I do this bit for a couple months, then go home."

"I'm American, too, though you wouldn't know it from my name," Akina smiled. "My mother lives there. Would you like some ramen? It's miso-flavored."

"Sure." He grabbed one of the two containers and started slurping it down. "This stuff is great."

00

Hinata had given up. He wasn't in the courtyard, and apparently he had no friends so no one kept track of him. This made him practically invisible. So she went to the art room, fully intending to retrieve the portrait she'd entered in the art show. They'd promised to return all of the artwork to the room on Monday.

Akerou was there. He had a paintbrush and palette in hand, and a cup of turpentine at his elbow. Hinata resisted the urge to hold her nose. The canvas on his easel had a lot of red on it, from what she could see, but the rest was blocked out by his black trench coat.

Just seeing him reminded her of the dream she'd had last night; a flash of the panic her life had exploded into after she'd discovered Gaara's death.

_Hinata gave Neji a quick goodbye kiss and a murmured "be careful" before she let him vault out of the window. The Hokage needed him more than she did right now._

"_I hope Naruto's okay," Sakura sighed, staring out of the kitchen window and surreptitiously rubbing her swollen stomach._

_Hinata thought about it, she really did. And she couldn't understand why someone would kill Gaara. He had made quite a few enemies in his youth, but Hinata couldn't think of one that was still living. Gaara had a way of dealing with people like that. And now Sasuke was missing, presumably plunging ahead (against orders, of course) as he tended to when he found someone or something that ticked him off. And Sakura had mentioned that Naruto hadn't been happy about that. There was something she was missing…_

_Naruto had left to chase after Sasuke. Just like always, so predictable._

_Hinata nearly dropped her teacup. _

_Had someone predicted this?_

Hinata hurriedly pulled herself back into reality when she reminded herself of her task. She needed to figure out what was going on.

"Excuse me," Hinata softly said, "You were at the art show and gave me this. My name…you can call me Hyuuga Hinata, if you like."

He turned around to look at her, and took his drawing back when she offered it.

"You're…you're Gaara of the Sand, right?"

He didn't speak, didn't affirm or negate her question. What he did do was dip his brush in the turpentine. Hinata suddenly felt embarrassed, like she'd interrupted some sort of sacred communion between him and the canvas. She waited, though, sinking down onto a drawing horse a few feet away to watch his brush dab at the cloth. She'd just gotten up to leave when he finally answered.

"Yes."

Just like that. One word. She sat back down to watch him paint.


	10. We Who You are for Only

AN: Sorry it took so long to get out this chapter, but I've just been so busy lately with school and my application for Pre-College and everything else…so enjoy this, and I'll try to get the next chapter out in a somewhat more timely manner (although I can't promise).

Beta & Fire Department: Kim and Madi

RR:

**Bob the Almighty** – I want to let you know that I have reasons for everything in this fic, although I can't really elaborate on anything without giving away everything.

**Shells** – I would like to tell you, but can't.

Thanks to: Shadowed Fear, Bob the Almighty, Shells, Crystalline Tears, OspreyAnimeG, morgannia, and blah

**Chapter 10 – We Who You are for Only**

"_Who's seen jezebel? _

_She was born to be the woman we could blame_

_Make me a beast half as brave_

_I'd be the same"_

– Iron & Wine, "Jezebel"

Kado clapped his hands over his ears when he heard Akina squealing in delight as she burst into the apartment.

"OmigodheissoNaruto!" she giggled.

"Uh?" Kado groaned, wondering if her outburst was over. "A guy you like?"

"Yes!"

"I thought you had a boyfriend already," he interrupted, cautiously retracting his hands from his ears. He readjusted his position on the couch, grabbing a throw pillow and concentrating on the TV – or trying to. And she did have a boyfriend: he knew because the poor guy had been calling the apartment consistently for a week, asking for Akina. Kado had turned him away each time, telling him that she wasn't home, partly because of Akina's insistence on this, but also because he didn't want jerks dating his baby sister anyway.

"Oh yeah," Akina remembered. "I'll have to fix that."

Then she flounced off; presumably to call Akiko and have _her_ call Akina's boyfriend and tell him he was officially dumped. Kado felt a twinge of pity at this, but their relationship had pretty much been doomed from the start if you went by the number of boyfriends Akina went through each year. It reminded him of tissues. You use one, then throw it away. Pretty soon you'll need a whole new box.

Kado changed the TV channel and rolled over.

0000

Caden bounded down the stairs two at a time. He wasn't really sure how to act around his exchange family yet, but that wasn't going to stop him from eating dinner. Their cool, soft, full moon faces had that eerie familial resemblance as they looked up at him from their western-style dining hall, resplendent in its elaborate, curlicue rococo glory. Boy, did they live well, he thought: the table had to be twenty feet long! They were all clustered around one end, huddling together, staring at him.

His new "mother" motioned him to sit at her right. His new "father" sat at the head of the table. His new "brother" sat opposite his mother. Caden ambled over and plopped himself into the chair, which earned him a glance, but he tried not to care.

The servants then brought out open china dishes that steamed with good aroma. He politely waited until they had served themselves before he snatched some food for himself, never mind his awkward feelings in the face of their huge, quiet hall. Nothing like home, a small house back in Eden, New York – and positively shrieking with the antics of his younger sisters and parents, and their friends. And nothing like that girl he'd met, either – Akina. She'd been so nice, so willing to talk, not like a lot of the school population, which had largely regarded him as a novelty and then proceeded to ignore him. After the initial curiosity over his origins had subsided, she'd been the only one to approach him. He smiled to himself and continued to chow down on his food.

0000

"Oh, good," Akina chimed, just as the doorbell buzzed.

"What?" Kado snarled, suddenly very aware of the possibility that what's-his-name that Akina had recently swooned for was behind the door. "You didn't tell me anyone was coming over."

"Yes I did," Akina defended, shooting him a look, "when you asked me how my day was."

Of course. Kado made a point not to listen to anything she said in reply to this question out of self-preservation. He felt that asking her in the first place should be enough to show he cared, because interpreting that meaningless blather went above and beyond the call of duty. It figured that she'd drop a bombshell when she knew he wasn't listening.

By the time he had collected himself, she had gone to answer the door.

"Hinata-chan!" he heard from the hall. A slim girl with auburn hair and sea-colored eyes was promptly dragged into Akina's bedroom by one hand, while a tall, sharp-looking Japanese boy closely followed the duo – only for the poor guy to have the door slammed shut before he could enter. The Japanese boy started banging on the door immediately after the offended look registered on his face. Well, that answered Kado's question about whether he was that guy Akina liked or not.

"At least tell me to shove off to my face!" he yelled, still smashing a fist on the door. To Kado's surprise, the door opened and Akina's head poked out.

"Go AWAY!" she screeched, and clapped the door shut again.

The dark-haired, disgruntled teenager then spotted Kado and eventually joined him on the couch, his face still twisted into a sullen snarl.

"Do you get that all the time, too?" he asked Kado dryly.

00000

"I tried to get Gaara to come," Hinata mentioned, biting her lip unconsciously, "but he wouldn't answer me."

They were sitting Akina's bed with the door locked. The room was a mix of creamy, pastel blues and yellows, leaving Hinata wondering at the fact that there were no obvious splotches of pink.

"I'm surprised he talked to you at all," Akina told her, secretly glad that Mr.Tall-Dark-And-Creepy had elected to evade their presence. "Anyway, we still need to find out if Caden-kun remembers being Naruto yet."

"We also need to know what caused all of this," Hinata said, thinking of her Nariko-chan's bright smile and Neji's offerings of flowers and her herb garden and her private apothecary, stocked full of her home-brewed cures. Did Neji know which bedtime story Nariko liked best? Someone would have to teach him how to look for monsters under Nariko's bed before she was tucked in, and Neji certainly didn't know how to cook soba for Nariko, or dress her for school. Neji's missions sometimes kept him gone for days, weeks – would he really trust Nariko to a babysitter? The ache constricted in her throat and Hinata found herself struggling to be positive.

Akina watched Hinata's face slowly blank out until she resembled a marble statue. She couldn't imagine what was going on in the other girl's mind, but Hinata needed to be snapped out of it.

"Hinata," Akina called, waving a hand in front of her face. "Helloooo-"

The phone shrilled a loud obnoxious ring at that very moment. It was probably Akiko calling back to tell Akina that she'd told Akina's former boyfriend to buzz off, so she picked it up.

"Hello?" Akina asked.

"Akina, sweetie, please listen – "

Click.

Akina hurriedly turned to smile at Hinata reassuringly, because Hinata was suddenly giving her a look that Akina's mother had perfected: 'I know what you're doing. Explain yourself. Now.'

"That was…short," Hinata said intently, disguised by the softness and frailty in her tone.

"It was my mother," Akina explained. "She's such a bitch."

Hinata looked as if she'd been slapped, as if Akina had insulted her and not the woman to whom she'd been referring.

"But…but…" Hinata floundered, lost and sad. "She's your _mother_….she loves you….she has to love you…"

Hinata didn't see Akina at all, but Nariko, with her charcoal hair and chalky eyes, older, saying to someone, a friend maybe, over and over and over: "She's such a bitch."

Akina couldn't understand why Hinata was sobbing, and couldn't understand what would make her stop.

0000

Kado didn't pick up the phone when it rang because it was probably for Akina.

"So, if you aren't that guy my sister is infatuated with, then who are you?"

"Kanaye," Kanaye replied. Then he made a face. "The dork, according to Akina. Not geeky like a nerd, and not dumb enough to be a stoner."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Hinata is my designated babysitter," he grumbled, crossing his arms and grimacing.

The phone rang again. Kado let it go for a couple of rings before he decided that Akina was definitely not picking it up, so he went for it. A business call, maybe?

"Hello, this is Arakawa Kado speaking. Who is this?"

"Kado, baby, it's mom. Speak in English, honey."

Kado got up and paced the room before sidling off to the kitchen as he switched fluidly to his second language.

"Akina hung up again?"

"She won't let me in, even though it's been so long. I'm tired of fighting just to talk to her on the phone, Kado. I need to see her in person so she can't run away."

"I can't take her out of school in the middle of the year and ship her over to you, mom, because that is asking me to drop my life and figure out yours and Akina's for the next who-knows-how-long."

"Please, Kado, she still listens to you –"

"No. If you want, you can come over here any time, but I'm not going to try to book plane tickets, dig up transcripts, and haul Akina kicking and screaming onto the next plane bound for Miami International Airport, even if it means that you two may be forced to talk to each other again."

"Why don't you give it a chance?"

"Give it a rest, please, mom."

The line was silent for a moment, then –

"You know I love you and I'm proud of you, right?" The voice was a little shaky.

"Yes, mom," he said in a singsong tone.

"I love you. Make sure your sister knows that I love her very much, too." Now the phone line was crackling with static, a sure sign of the distance between them.

"Yeah. Okay. I will. Bye."

0000

"It's not what you think!" Akina tried to tell Hinata, who was hunched over on the purple bedspread with puffy red eyes and molten tears that tracked trails down her cheeks. "She really is horrible!"

Hinata couldn't speak, so she waited for Akina to tell her why.

"She's a bitch. She was married to my dad for so long, and they were so happy together. He used to take me out to the park all the time and go to all of my stupid little school functions ever since I was a baby. He even taught me and Kado to speak Japanese! But mom got a boyfriend after all those years, and she cheated on my dad, and by cheating on him she cheated on me and Kado, too, see? She didn't love any of us anymore, so she needed someone to make up for it," Akina confessed, punctuating her rage and sorrow with fingers in the air, the heat rising to her face. "Dad was devastated when he found out, so he decided to go right home to Japan. He would've taken us with him, but mom wouldn't let him. That's how much she hated us. And he died that day when the plane crashed into the Pacific. It was engine failure. If she hadn't cheated, we'd still be happy! Dad would be alive! She tore apart the family, I'm just calling her what she is!"

Hinata let Akina pace a bit more around the carpet in circles, only half-listening to whatever she was going on about.

Hinata prayed that Nariko loved her; that Nariko the beautiful child would grow into a beautiful lady and still love her. Hinata closed her ears and her eyes and opened her heart to that hope.

0000

By the next day, Akina was tired of everyone: tired of her brother's constant badgering, tired of Hinata bursting into tears, and tired of dealing with Kanaye's personality, which was ultimately doomed to clash with hers. And now, of course, she was tired of this:

"Omigod, did you hear?"

"Akane-chan told me that someone saw that Hinata girl and Kanaye go home with her! Do you know what this means?"

"She likes Kanaye!"

They sounded so scandalized. Akina had felt the sting of rumor floating through the hallways before, but this was an outrage. She stalked up to the two gossipers, both female.

"Hi," she said, a grave and terrible smile overtaking her features. The two of them paled, even with their skin as light as it was. "Who started this bullshit about me and Kanaye?"

"Well…"

"Uh…"

"You conniving bitches. If their names don't roll off your glib, lying little tongues in five seconds…I'll rip every pretty little strand of hair off of your fucking heads _with my bare hands._"

Studies show that humans can tolerate more pain if exposed to it in slowly increasing doses. The fastest way to cause these gossip girls the most pain and embarrassment possible was to rip it all out at once.

Ragnarok was coming, and its name was Arakawa Akina.

0000

_Everything was closing in black and wet, dark and cold and clear. How did things end up this way? He needed time to think, time to lament, but the sky was so far away from this place._

_So slow, so long was his death in releasing him._

0000


	11. Through Me

AN: I've recently become entranced by "Death Note." Unfortunately, this means that I've also recently become upset by the events in chapters 58-59. It doesn't mean I don't love Naruto. I'm just more worried about L right now. Still, the show goes on.

**Beta & Fire Department: **Kim and Madi

**benighted fool: **Thank you for your in-depth critiques. I really appreciate the time you took to write those three reviews. You are right about doing the parody in a new story so it won't interrupt the flow. Also, my beta Madi got a little offended that she'd missed the word "annunciated" when she was checking my fic for errors (Kim only checks to make sure the characters and general story are on target, Madi does the actual grammar/spelling)….you can go read her response to that on the review page. She asked me to tell you that she's sorry if she sounded too harsh.

**morgannia: ** Sorry I didn't answer you last chapter, but here it is: I'll think about it. We'll see.

**OspreyAnimeG:** Even though I'd like to be out with it, I can't tell you that, because it would ruin the story for everyone. Just wait, and you will see.

**Thanks to: **Shells, shikaruTo, benighted fool, RemyLuver, Shadowed Fear, OspreyAnimeG, and Xoni Newcomer

**Chapter 11 – Through Me**

"_Through me you pass into the city of woe:_

_Through me you pass into eternal pain:_

_Through me among the people lost for aye."_

– _Dante Alighieri, **The Divine Comedy**, Canto III _

Watanabe Chise. Of course.

Akina was not a forgiving person, though she would be the last to admit it. When she passed through the hallways, the war cry sounding in her ears, people glanced at her in surprise or openly stopped and stared. She was the goddess Alecto wrapped in human flesh. Chise-chan, that fucking bitch, was going to get a taste of all nine circles of Hell.

Various lesser beings numbly pointed directions when Akina blazed by, and some trailed along behind her at safe distances, gawking much like those entranced by a lit round of candle-fizzing dynamite before stepping back to watch all the little bits and pieces rain down around them.

Chise's back was to Akina as she approached, but Akina would know that goddamn ugly hairdo anywhere. Akina moved in for the kill – and failed to take in the whole situation before it was too late.

Akina's clique was ranged around Chise, and looked panicky, to various degrees, at Akina's approach. Akina herself was going through several states of horror, pain, and finally, rage, as she reached her final destination.

It is worth noting at this point that the lowest circle in the Inferno is reserved for traitors.

0000

The lunch bell had rung just a few minutes ago and Caden was worried. Akina had stomped past him, practically on fire, ignoring him and anyone else she might have otherwise said "hi" to in the hallway. Something was up, and Caden really hoped that this wasn't going to end up like Carrie.

That one had really blown up in his face.

00000

Akerou was in the waiting room when it happened. He felt it coming, so he relaxed in his chair and crossed his arms, and let it take him away.

"_Kazekage-sama!" someone shouted from outside his office door, on which was hung a messily scrawled "Do Not Disturb" sign, probably courtesy of his sister Temari. "There's something you need to see!"_

"_Come in," Gaara said._

_One of his subordinates tromped into the office, waving around a paper, which, at second glance, was a map. Gaara was at his desk, signing legislation and reviewing mission reports. The piles were neatly organized on his wooden desk, illuminated by a window and skylight. Still, Gaara had to get up from his chair to see over the stacks. His medium build and impending workload were equally to blame._

"_What?" Gaara added, his voice carrying tinges of irritation – if you knew what to look for._

"_Well…let's just say that a geographic phenomenon has occurred, Kazekage-sama," his assistant sighed. Gaara pushed a pile of papers aside and motioned for the other man to sit before he did the same._

"_Tell me," Gaara commanded._

"_A lake. A new one has appeared out of thin air, in the desert a few miles south of the village. One of the birds spotted it."_

"_Send out a reconnaissance squad."_

"_Yes, sir," the assistant said, before vanishing to do his bidding._

00000

"What the FUCK is going ON?" Akina roared, spinning Chise around with one hand.

"What do you mean?" was the innocent response.

"You know exactly what I mean! Why have you been spreading lies about me and that dipshit KANAYE?"

The clique seemed uncomfortable because of Akina's loaded interrogation. Oh, they _knew _that Chise had been the cause of Akina's problems when she first transferred. They _knew_ that Akina had saved them from Chise's chains when she led them away quietly, slowly, from Chise's grasp. They _knew_ that Akina had kept them safe, again and again, from falling back into Chise's fatal embrace, from anyone else that might harm them.

_They knew._

What really hurt was the way they cowered behind Chise as she gave Akina the retort, "It's true. You've been hanging out with Kanaye and that wimp Hinata way too much lately for you to be just friends. We were just letting everyone know that he finally had a girlfriend."

Akina slapped her so hard that her head spun. Chise fell to her knees and started to wail as she clutched her face.

"Why?" Akina demanded of her friends, stepping over Chise to meet them. "**WHY?**"

"You don't want to hang out with us any more, so why should we want to hang out with you!" Akiko shrieked, close to tears, huddled together with the others.

"You haven't called most of us for a week! You haven't met with us in a week!"

"You call that friendship!"

"You're so violent! You even hit Chise-chan!"

Amid the rising tide of requited hate and sharp jeers, Akina fled.

00000

Caden sat on the roof and waited to see if Akina would show. She'd come yesterday and the day before and he'd gotten to like their English conversations. It had been a relief for him to find someone else who knew 'Franz Ferdinand' was a band, and someone who understood him when talked about American foods, or sports, or the episode of this TV show or the stupidity of that politician. Akina was up-to-date on everything, even if she had spent the last year or so in Japan.

Alone, he pulled out his comfort food, one that reminded him of his home every time he ate it – a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then he pulled out his cell phone to check his voice mail. Maybe Mom had called him. Maybe his sisters had.

"Twenty-five new messages? But I just checked this last week…"

00000

"I don't mind if you eat lunch in here. I know it's lunchtime at your school right now," Haraguchi-san said. Akerou looked up at him and slid out a lunch box and some chopsticks. He opened it and slowly began to pick at his rice in the shadow of his traditional sunless spot in this office. The lunch box was on his lap. Haraguchi creaked his leather armchair.

"How are you today?" was the first question asked, as usual. Akerou chewed thoughtfully and swallowed.

"_Hi, how are you?" Temari asked, sliding into Gaara's office jauntily, a smirk on her ever-confident features. "You rang?"_

"_Someone sent me the heads of a reconnaissance team. Without their eyes."_

"_I see," Temari remarked. "You want me to go?"_

"_Find me a jounin team specializing in disabling water ninjutsu," he supplied. The village had grown since he'd become Kazekage; he couldn't remember all of the teams by name any more._

"_Sure thing," Temari, captain of the Sand ANBU, replied. "This is serious, though. I'll go along as backup."_

_She hadn't seen any real action since the Akatsuki had been destroyed. To Temari, this would be intriguing. _

00000

This was the first time Akina had felt like crying since her father's death.

_How dare they!_

She'd even forgotten to threaten Chise to keep quiet about all this – no, no, rather, Akina had jumped in without thinking. She should've tried to catch Chise in a place where so many people wouldn't see them. Akina was pretty positive that she was going to be suspended for slapping Chise.

Then Akina looked up and realized where she was. The third floor girls' bathroom was empty and desolate and cold and tiled. Akina stared at her reflection in a mirror at herself; she was red-faced, breathing hard, and shaking. In the girls' bathroom.

With that revelation, Akina began to punch the wall until her knuckles bled and her bones were sore.

They'd never make her cry.

They'd never…

Akina's mind barely registered the red splatters on the wall as she realized how tired she was. She breathed quietly, sank onto the gray tiled floor, and leaned against the wall; she closed her eyes.

"_Sakura-chan!" he called loudly, too loudly for the comfort of the patients in the Sand's medical ward. Naruto was now more of a lanky teen than he'd been just a few months ago; he was much taller than she was now._

_He was limping but he still put on a smile as he came up to Sakura. She quickly finished the analysis she'd been doing on her patient and wrapped his new bandages tightly before performing a minor medical jutsu, one meant to help speed the body's healing process. Then she closed the starched white curtains on her patient's bed and put her hands on her hips. _

"_I thought you were just going to scout the remains of the Akatsuki compound for traces of forbidden jutsus and weaponry," she said, giving him a critical eye._

"_It got complicated," Naruto told her sadly. _

"_How?"_

"_Sasuke was there."_


	12. Waking Slow

AN: I didn't update for a whole month. So kill me. I had AP tests, juries, and finals all in a row. I've wanted to die for the last four weeks, so what's stopping you from giving me what I want?

…Ha, don't mind me, I'm crazy.

**_WARNING:_** GRUESOME SCENE.

**Beta & Fire Department: **Kim and Madi

**RR**

**varnished glass:** The truth is that while I totally agree with you on the concept of not caring who-likes-who and so forth, Akina as a character is extremely interested in this sort of thing, and therefore also feels the need to preserve and protect her public image. In other words, I am trying to write about someone who would serve as a great foil to my personality. This is why Hinata is the real main character: I can relate much more to her than Akina. Nevertheless, Akina must be developed as a character for plot purposes. As for the "in-depth critique" thing, I figured you were giving me your honest opinion on everything as opposed to just telling me how fantastic I am. It's nice to know if things are working properly. I assumed this because I got an "A-" rating (and also because of this current review of 11), so you weren't trying to flatter me by saying "A+". Your ramblings are much appreciated, because it lets me know how some of my readers might think/react to the story. That is what I really mean; it just took longer to say. And if you still feel I'm wrong, I'm sorry that you felt my first choice of diction was inaccurate.

**Shadowed Fear:** I haven't read "The Thief Lord," sorry. Recommending something is totally up to you.

**Thanks to:** esther, varnished glass, akabikam, shikaruTo, Shadowed Fear, and OspreyAnimeG.

**Translations:**

**bento ** lunch box with food in it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

**Aniki** brother; familiar term

**Chapter 12 – Waking Slow**

"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go."

– Theodore Roethke, "The Waking"

"_Sasuke was there," he said._

_Sakura peered over his shoulder, but saw no spike of black hair trailing Naruto's blond. She was young, just fifteen, but already old enough to understand heartbreak. It was the second time Naruto had broken his promise. Sakura stared at the floor._

"_He was looking for Itachi," Naruto mumbled. "He said that I wasn't worth his time. Then he was gone."_

_Sakura hugged herself, listening to the thoughts that stampeded through her brain: he doesn't love you, he doesn't want to come back, he doesn't need his home anymore._

"_I'm sorry, Sakura-chan," she heard Naruto say. Her eyes were closed, but they snapped open when he leaned over to give her a kiss on the forehead – platonic, yes, but important. She grabbed him reflexively and held on, wanting to blame him for her loss, but knowing that what she really needed was in the here and now, not in the past._

Akina could still feel warm arms cradling her in return in that moment when she awoke. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and looked around. She was still in the bathroom, alone. She didn't stop to inspect the smooth, unbroken skin on her knuckles or the relatively bleached and stainless quality of the wall before she stood up.

Akina hissed a little at her oncoming headache, but there was still a light smile on her face as she left. Now she was sure of herself; she knew what she was going to do.

0000000000000

"You'll be my campaign manager, right, Hinata?" Kanaye grinned.

"Excuse me?" she asked, dipping her chopsticks into her bento. They were seated underneath a tree in the courtyard, talking to each other a little over the voices of the other students milling about, also eating. Kanaye winked at Hinata and she choked.

"Y'know how I'm the vice president of the Junior Anti-Drug League?"

"Yes…"

"Well, it's reelection time!" Kanaye exclaimed. "School-wide elections are happening soon!"

"Uh-huh," Hinata agreed absentmindedly. She wondered where Akina had gone. Usually she at least came by to say hello.

"So you _will_ be my manager! Awesome!"

000000

The bright day Kanaye and Hinata bathed in was very different from the one that Akerou was facing, away in memory.

_It was filled with crawly, clicking, segmented maggots and worms, erupting from the chest cavity in an oozing mockery of afterbirth. Leeches sucked at the remainder of eye sockets, pulsating and shiny amid dull scab rust. The cadaver was bloated, tinted with blues and greens that lay barely visible under caked filth. Black flies with tiny, hairy legs on obese bodies and long, thin proboscises diseased it as they buzzed and nipped at it. The stench was sweetly sick: candy and rotting eggs. The corpse's rigor mortis was an aftertaste, a stillness compared with the skittering vestiges of life not its own. Still, Gaara knew who it was, because of the way the hair that remained on the scraps of skin clinging to the skull was tied into four pigtails, although they were no longer blond._

_Whoever had destroyed this mission had made a grave mistake. They'd killed his sister and defaced her body. The Kazekage's legendary anger was now fully awake. The demon whispered inside of him, and he answered its cry of bloodlust with one of his own._

When Akerou blinked and found himself back in the office, all he really wanted to do was scream. He knew he was seventeen now, but moments ago he'd been much older than that.

He didn't scream.

00000000000

"Something's making Akerou worse, Shishido-san," Doctor Haraguchi said. "Usually he at least focuses on me during our sessions, but lately he's been zoning out more and more, and today he got up in the middle of a session and left."

Akerou's mother fiddled with her purse nervously and stared at the floor before rubbing at her temples and saying, "Oh god… what do we do?"

"I guess we'll have to find out what's going on. Try getting me any clues you can pick up at home, but don't back him into a corner. Just keep an eye out."

00000000000

The apartment, at this point, was almost indistinguishable from a snowstorm – although it wasn't as cold. Piles of posters and pins were scattered everywhere, and it made Hinata depressed because she'd just cleaned up the mess yesterday.

"Those idiots don't have a chance," Kanaye crowed. "Not when I've got a ninja on my side!"

Hinata tiredly snapped and clipped 'Vote for Kanaye' pins together. She only had fifty more to go. It still hadn't settled in that Kanaye was actually running in an actual election. After all, he was the best un-listener she had ever met – and now he wanted to be elected, no, reelected, to some sort of leadership position. Weren't leaders supposed to listen to the demands of their followers, at least to some degree?

"I'm running against some smart guy from club and a newbie named Saka-something-or-other, y'know that kid who showed up last week. I talked to him once, he's a great guy, really. The perfect vice president. Knows some English. Too bad I'm gonna win."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Kanaye," Hinata advised.

"What chickens?"

"Nevermind."

00000000000

Akina quietly snuck into the apartment, closing the door with only a small click, tiptoeing past Kado as he hung up the phone. Unfortunately, this reminded her of how they used to play hide-and-seek when they were small: he always knew where she was.

"Do you know who just called?" Kado asked, without even looking to see if she was there.

"Um…"

"The principal."

"I can explain!"

"Go ahead. Try."

Kado's arms were crossed now, and he'd turned to give Akina his full attention. Her throat was suddenly parched.

"I-I slapped a girl because – well, she – she stole my friends and told me I was dating that idiot Kanaye!"

"You have Saturday detention for the rest of the year, Akina. The only reason you didn't get suspended is because it's your first offense."

"It was her fault – !"

"Akina, you injured someone at school! On purpose!"

"She was being such a bitch! She was saying the nastiest things to me – !"

"It doesn't matter what she said to you! You still shouldn't hit people! She didn't hit you, did she? Huh?"

"No, but – "

"Maybe you should just go home."

There was a pause. Akina's mouth was open for a rebuttal of his words, but nothing came out for a moment. Kado was frozen as well, a foreboding stone statue. Akina broke the silence first.

"Don't send me back! Please, Aniki! Don't mail me back to mom! I've changed – I'll change!" Akina begged, her face red, her eyes filled. She grabbed Kado by both arms, frantically trying to hold on. "Aniki – "

He started to pull away, but changed directions to wrap her into a hug. Akina stopped shaking.

"One more chance," he said quietly. "I don't want to make you leave, Akina, but I'm not Dad – I mean, I'm not a good guardian."

He sighed. Akina smiled into his shoulder.

"I'm gonna be a better person, I promise," she told him. "I wouldn't trade you for the world."

"Love you, too."

0000000000000

The next day, Kanaye woke Hinata up at five in the morning so they could go to school and tape homemade posters across every wall. Only Kanaye would break into the school early in the morning to get a head start on his campaign, or a late start, if you consider the fact that everyone else had gotten their posters up a week ago. He knelt in front of the door and pulled out a pin, which he began to viciously apply to a side door on campus.

"Oh my god, Kanaye, you know how to pick locks?"

"Hey, you taught me."

"You mean Sorano taught you."

The lock clicked open, and Kanaye snatched her hand and snuck them inside, humming the "Mission Impossible" theme song.

"Yeah, Sorano is a bad influence," he smirked.

"Shouldn't the school have better security?"

"Hinata, who the hell would want to break into a school? What they want is to get out."

"You want to get in, don't you?"

"Hey, this is how politics works. Remember that Watergate thing that happened in America?"

He was careful not to cover any other posters when he started pasting his around the buildings, whether they were advertising for class president or the president of the tennis club. Hinata was initially surprised at his care for the campaigns of others, but it wore off rather quickly when she saw the permanent marker.

"No, no, no," she muttered, holding out her hand so he could put the marker in it. Kanaye didn't even hear her, though, because he was already dashing down the hall. Hinata, still somewhat unused to her young body (which wasn't in great shape anyway), struggled just to keep up with him. Not all of the lights were on yet, and he kept flashing in and out of the shadows.

His first victim was a poster of the face of 'Saka-something-or-other.' Kanaye quickly scratched in devil horns and a snake tongue and scratched out the eyes, leaving the face with two gaping black holes. Then Kanaye flounced off to the other ones, equally attacking class secretaries and club presidents, even some of his own flyers.

"You are so juvenile!" Hinata tried to shout, but it was softer then she meant it to be. "Kanaye!"

0000000000

She had pink hair, cut just above her shoulders, a small, round face, and soulful, dark green eyes above a small nose and rosebud lips. She was fishing through a locker in the hall, stared at by the occasional passerby – most of the school, after all, had black hair and eyes.

"S-S-Sakura-chan?" Hinata gasped. Akina smiled at her.

"Like it?" she asked, picking up a lock of her newly dyed and cut hair for inspection. What once was blond hair to the waist was now short, a strawberry-peach color.

"Same thing," Kanaye said, coming up behind Hinata and shrugging helpfully. "You're still ugly."

Both Akina and Hinata's eyes caught on Kanaye. Akina fell deep into a murderous rage; Hinata stood still, shocked. He pulled a face at them and ran away, Akina hot on his heels, though both of them had to trip around students as they sprinted down the hall.

00000000000

Most of the shock value was in how bright her hair was now. The wind rushed over it and the sun hit it at such an angle that it seemed as if she'd just wreathed her hair in cherry blossoms.

"Akina?" Caden asked, wondering if what he was seeing was really there. He supposed that he could be hallucinating.

"Hi," she supplied, flopping down next to him on the flat roof tiles.

"Why did you dye your hair?"

"I needed to change."

She pulled out her lunch and he did the same. He stared at the cuisine that was inside of his – he'd never get used to his foster family. Ever. He didn't really understand why a personal chef was so necessary for them.

"This isn't some sort of creepy suicidal or homicidal punk phase you're going through, is it?" he asked, glancing at her hair again. Her laughter rang out for a good five minutes before she could answer him. He smiled despite himself, liking the way her hair was twisting around her eyes and her grin.

"No, no," she said. "I'm just becoming who I'm supposed to be."

0000000000

Akerou shut his door, trying to ignore the murmured conversation going on in the other room. He knew that his parents were talking about him again; it was always the same tone with them, all quiet and frantic.

He gritted his teeth when he felt that other place returning to him, shutting out his room. He wanted it to stop, stop, stop – hurting him –

_The wisp of sand he floated on gave a good bird's-eye view of the lake, a sparkling circle beneath him that seemed to be relatively large. He drifted downwards, listening to the demon shifting in his head as it prepared for a battle. As Gaara got closer and closer, he could make out a robed black figure standing on a sand dune that overlooked the new lake. He looked for any customary red clouds on the cape, even though the Akatsuki had been destroyed, but saw none. He let the cloud of sand carry him to the dune, where it settled. The figure, enclosed in its cape, made no remark._

"_You killed my sister," Gaara said, his muscles tensing, his anger rising to the surface. His fingers swiftly ran through the jutsu, the demon roaring in anticipation. Sand gathered around him, encompassing his body, and the demon started to stretch out of its human prison._

_Inside the cocoon of sand, Gaara went to sleep._


End file.
